This book so beautifully presents both Platonic spiritual concepts and inner meanings of several of the most important myths. As another reviewer noted, if you like Joseph Campbell, this is a book for you.I wish I had read this book before I started diving into Plato and the neo-Platonists. The introduction to Platonic thought is so simply, beautifully presented here.For many people in the modern world there is a remarkable dissonance that occurs upon encountering classical mythology. Even Socrates thought that the antic of the olympians were very poor models for the behavior of citizens in the republic and that, therefore, Homer should be banned.Tim Addey's exegesis on the fragment from Damascius, however, awakens readers to the concept that the Gods and their stories in Greek and Roman mythology were allegories for the journey of the soul.This is a dense and difficult topic. People like Jung devoted a great deal of thought to the matter, and Campbell, although he did a lot to make his ideas accessible to the general public, could still be pretty arcane in his more academic writings.It is for that reason that this book is valuable: it puts the general outlines of the myth as metaphor for the journey of the soul within easy reach of the more casual reader. The introduction to the concepts of Platonic thought is also extremely valuable to those coming to the subject for the first time.If you are a person who wants to explore the realm of Platonic philosophy, this book, and Addey's "The Unfolding Wings" are great introductions to the subject."The Seven Myths of the Soul" is based on a passage from Damascius, the last head of Plato's Academy in Athens:The Soul descends into generation, after the manner of Kore;She is scattered by generation, after the manner of Dionysus ;Like Prometheus and the Titans, she is bound to body.She frees herself by exercising the strength of Heracles ;Gathers herself together through the help of ApolloAnd the Saviour Athene, by truly purifying philosophy;And she elevates herself to the causes of her being with Demeter .This aspiration, journey and initiation of the soul still happens today, if one lives aright.High endorsement!Damascius, the last head of Plato's Academy in Athens, wrote"The soul descends into generation after the manner of Persephone; she is scattered by generation after the manner of Dionysus; she is bound to body like Prometheus and the Titans; she frees herself by exercising the strength of Heracles; she gathers herself by truly purifying philosophy with the help of Apollo and the saviour Athene; and she elevates herself to the causes of her being with Demeter."Tim Addey shows how these myths describe the human condition and destiny, with the aid of Platonic philosophy and ideas from Joseph Campbell. He ends with a chapter defending the worship of the Gods: "Religions which try to remove Gods from the scheme of worship nearly always unwittingly degrade God, or elevate Man to a false and arrogant status."