HELBI

Good news from the Frankfurt Book Fair: Oceanida Press and another 33 publishers from around the world have embarked on an ambitious project. They are presenting a new series titled «The Myths» at the fair, which runs until tomorrow. Four leading writers - Karen Armstrong and Jeannette Winterson from Britain, Margaret Atwood from Canada and David Grossman from Israel - met the press Thursday at the Frankfurterhof Hotel to talk about their contributions to the series. The idea for «Myths» came from Jamie Byng of Canongate in 1999. «It is a huge event: the culmination of six years of time, effort and thought,» Byng said. «It was a Herculean effort to pull together.» Five titles in the series are being presented in Frankfurt: Armstrong's «A Short History of Myth,» Atwood's «Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odyssey,» Winterson's «Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Hercules» Victor Pelevin's «The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur,» and Grossman's «Lion's Honey: The Myth of Samson.» The first four have already been released in Athens by Oceanida, translated by Leonidas Karatzas. The remaining titles - from Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, China, Japan and Brazil - will be available in 2006.