This is really long, and it's good. It's clear that the author put his heart into this work. It's only that it's really long, and it's a library book, so I wanted to return it. I only got halfway through it, but I wanted to remember my favorite parts:

Cicero's story of the grateful Dead Man:
"The 'grateful Dead Man,' as folklorists call him, figures in a stable narrative routine in a variety of traditional stories: (a) the protagonist comes upon the corpse of a man he does not know; (b) he kindly arranges for Burial at his own expense; subsequently, (c) the Dead Man's ghost appears to him and helps him in some way. In the present belief legend The grateful Dead Man serves Simonides as a warning apparition.
the American rock band The Grateful Dead took its name from this recurrent figure of folk narrative."

"36. Pythagoras remembers an earlier life
Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of souls and regarded the eating of meat as something to be avoided, saying that after death The souls of all living beings enter into other living beings. He used to declare than in his own case he remembered having been Euphorbos, the son of Panthos, at the time of the Trojan war, and that he had been slain by Menelaos.
They say that Pythagoras once came as a traveler to Argos and, seeing among the spoils from Troy a shield nailed to a wall, began to weep. When they Argives asked him the reason for his grief, he explained that he had carried this very shield at Troy when he was Euphorbos. Since they were incredulous and judged him to be mad, he declared that he would give them verbal proof that this was the case. On the inner side of the shield (he said) there was inscribed, in archaic letters, EUPHORBOS. At this surprising claim everyone called for the shield to be taken down, and, as it happens, this inscription was found on the inner side.
Diodorus of Sicily"

From: Miracles of Jesus
"There was a woman who had been experiencing her menstrual period For 12 years. She had been treated by many doctors, had spent all the money she had, and had not been helped but had gotten worse. After hearing about Jesus, she joined the crowd from behind and touched his cloak. For she had said to herself, 'if I touch even his cloak, I'll be healed.' The source of her blood immediately dried up, and she recognized in her body that she was healed of her illness.
Jesus was immediately aware that his power had gone out of him, and turning around to the crowd, he said, 'who touched my cloak?' his disciples said, 'you see how the crowd is pressing you, and yet you ask who touched you?' But he was looking around to see who had done it. In fear and trembling, The woman who knew what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be free of your illness.' "

"The suckling daughter
a praetor found a free-born woman guilty of a capital crime at his tribunal and handed her over to the triumvir for execution in prison. She was received there, but the man in immediate charge of her custody, moved with pity, did not strangle her straight away. Moreover, he permitted the woman's daughter to have access to her, although he did search the girl thoroughly beforehand to be sure that she did not bring any any food with her, for he was calculating that the woman would die of starvation.
After the passage of many days, however, the man asked himself how it was that his prisoner was holding out for so long. Observing the daughter more closely, he noticed her take out her breast and alleviate her mother's hunger with the help of her own milk. This novel and astonishing scene was reported by the jailer to the triumvir, by him to the praetor, and by him to the board of judges, and a remission of the woman's penalty was granted.
Where does Piety not penetrate, and what does she not devise? in prison she found a new way to save a parent. For is there anything so extraordinary, so unusual, as for a mother to be nourished by her own daughter's breasts? One might think this could be contrary to natural order, if it were not the first law of nature to esteem one's parents.
Valerius Maximus"

"Zeus and Hera wrangle over sexuality
among the Thebans there was a seer named Teiresias, son of Eueres and a nymph Chariklo, descended from the family of the Spartan Oudaios. Teiresias lost his sight, and different stories are told about his blinding and his powers as a seer. Some persons say that he was blinded by the gods because he had revealed to human beings matters that the gods wished to keep secret.
Pherekydes, however, says that he was blinded by Athena. For Chariklo was dear to Athena, but [some words have fallen out of the text here, such as 'when Teiresias happened to come upon the goddess and'] saw her completely naked, she put her hands over his eyes and disabled his sight.
Chariklo asked Athena to restore his vision, but since Athena was unable to do this, she cleansed his ears, making him understand all the cries of birds, and she gave him a staff of Cornel wood by means of which he was able to walk like sighted persons.
but Hesiod says that Teiresias saw snakes copulating on Mount kyllene, wounded them, and was transformed from a man into a woman, and that on another occasion he observed the same snakes copulating, and became a man. For this reason, when Hera and Zeus were arguing about whether men or women enjoyed sexual intercourse more, they asked Teiresias. He said that if sexual pleasure had 10 parts, men enjoyed 1/10 and women 9/10. Because of this answer Hera blinded him, while Zeus granted him the power of prophecy."
( )

I honestly LOVED reading these stories. Some of them were familiar tales - the tortoise and the hare, for example - that aren’t necessarily connected to these ancient peoples, which I liked discovering. The stories kept me entertained, and I was laughing through most of them. I definitely need to get my hands on my own personal copy. ( )