Gustav Schwab’s retelling of the most beautiful sagas of classical antiquity , one of the best known and most widespread collections of its kind, has been a well-read entry-level reading of ancient mythology since its first publication in 1838-1840. The particular closeness to ancient literary tradition emphasized by the author himself is, however, little known and even less investigated. For the first time, the book comprehensively analyzes the relationship of retelling to its ancient literary sources. Many passages prove to be almost literal borrowings from the Greek and Latin texts, others turn out to be free replicas. Schwab also demonstrably used modern translations and other aids such as mythological lexicons. In a summary of many small-scale analyzes, Schwab’s legendary tales show themselves to be the product of a tasteful and well-read literary and school man, who, however, did not always live up to his intention of presenting the myths without moralizing intervention.