This is a welcome ‘makeover’ of a book which had already established itself as a standard reference work on classical mythology. I always recommended the first edition to undergraduate students because of its clarity and systematic attention to the ancient sources, both literary and visual: this new edition maintains the strengths of the original, while the text has been enhanced and even more illustrations of the visual material have been included (172 as against the first edition's 148). Indeed, the illustrations are a particularly noteworthy feature: 25 are photographs, especially of sculpture, but the majority are vase-paintings redrawn by M.'s son-in-law Neil Barrett, whose precise style renders many details rather clearer than in older photographs. Full details of each work of art are provided in the list of illustrations: the one improvement I would have liked to see here is a distinction between drawings done from (photos of) actual vases and those which appear to follow the old Furtwängler–Reichhold drawings (compare, e.g., the 3D effect of fig. 36, reproducing the Pan Painter's Busiris pelike in Athens NM, with the much flatter fig. 28, the main frieze from the Syleus Painter's Ariadne hydria in Berlin ‘rolled out’ for ease of viewing). However, Barrett's contribution is a significant one, making an excellent range of images of classical myth readily available to a wide readership.

Individual entries vary in length from three words with a cross-reference (e.g. Hippothoon: ‘Son of ALOPE’) to over seven pages (for Heracles), as appropriate to the amount of material available. Each substantial entry provides a concise identification of the figure concerned and an account of the narrative(s) in which they appear; at the end of the entry is a list of references to the major literary sources, and many entries are supported by one or more of those illustrations. The introduction provides an overview of our sources for Greek and Roman myth and its cultural significance in the ancient world. This is supported by the volume's end matter: maps, genealogical tables, an A-Z of ancient authors and (a nice touch) an index of recurrent motifs. Further reading is indicated by a general ‘select bibliography’: this includes a good, up-to-date range of readily-available books on myth in general; a surprising omission is volume 2 of R.L. Fowler's Early Greek Mythography (2013), and I would have added some explanation of the resources available for more advanced research, especially the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, and such web resources as the Perseus Project (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/). More specific further reading is occasionally, but not systematically, indicated within individual entries: here an opportunity has been missed to refer the reader to the volumes of the Routledge Ancient Gods and Heroes series.

Overall, however, I would thoroughly recommend this as an affordable, reliable and lively reference work. Its accessible style makes it suitable for school use, undergraduate students and the general reader, while the thoroughness of coverage make it a convenient first point of call even for more advanced researchers.