Book Review
Title: Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology #1)
Author: Stephen Fry
Genre: Mythology/Retelling/Non-fiction
Rating: ***
Review: I was excited to pick up Stephen Fry’s new book retelling the Great Mythology since I have been a huge fan of all mythology since I was a child. From the very first sentence Stephen Fry’s comedic nature came through very clearly as he depicts the creation of the first Titans, their incestuous relationship and resulting offspring and the rising of the first Gods in Zeus and his siblings. I realised really early on that despite watching and reading many books and movies centred around Greek mythology that I didn’t actually know that much about it and it was interesting to learn of the origins of Gaia and Kronos and how these myths and legends still resonate today in words and phrases we used.
After the creation of the modern gods that we know Zeus, Hera, Hades etc we get to see how Zeus overthrows Kronos who overthrew his own father and how Zeus became the all powerful god we know him as. We see the plot between Rhea and Zeus to overthrow Kronos and how he saves his siblings, in the aftermath of this Zeus moves the home of the gods to Olympus where it remained and allocated domains to the gods of the pantheon which included his first born son with Hera, Hephaestus after his mother cast him off Mount Olympus for being weak. Hephaestus grew to be a master craftsman and even won the hand of Aphrodite in marriage for releasing Hera for a chair of his own creation which earned him his seat among the gods and allowed him to return home but with the birth of Hera and Zeus’ second child; Ares, we see the slow building of what we know of Greek myths and heroes forming. However, shortly after this we see Zeus fathers 4 illegitimate children: Athena, Artemis, Apollo, and Hermes. While Zeus loved his daughters, Athena, and Artemis greatly and could deny them nothing this didn’t save them from Hera’s wrath. In fact, there was only one of his children that was able to completely win over Hera and that was Hermes who was beloved by all the gods especially his half-brother Apollo and this earned him the role of Messenger to the Gods. After this Zeus is congratulated on his achievements but they feel hollow and empty to him and he feels something is missing and in the manner of his youngest son, he acts on an idea but unlike Hermes, who makes sure the consequences of his ideas go in his favour, Zeus isn’t that forward thinking. So far, Mythos has been an interesting read and expanding on my existing knowledge of Greek mythology and legends and even taught me some things I didn’t know but it isn’t anything special as of yet.
We are then introduced to Prometheus, a good friend to Zeus who created the human race from clay as Zeus wanted but they were only male to not incur Hera’s wrath. As Athena gave life to the little creations, the gods are enjoying playing with them but Zeus’ order that the human are never to be given fire was weighing on Prometheus as he knew his creation needed something more, they needed the divine fire to make them a race that would endure much like the gods and goes about stealing the divine fire and breaking the command Zeus had given the gods. Prometheus because of what he had given to the human incurs Zeus’ wrath which hasn’t been seen by the gods before but he leaves Prometheus alone for now and turns his anger towards Prometheus’ creations. He creates a woman more lovely and beautiful than any others and she is taught by the gods and named Pandora before Zeus sends her among the humans with a container filled with horrible things. For a time, Pandora lives happily married to Prometheus’ brothers but the jar and her promise to never open it constantly nagged at her until one night she opens it unleashed the horrors upon the world but when she seals the jar again, she traps inside hope that will remains there forever, locked away. In this single action, the Golden Age which humans had known had come to an end and things are already beginning to change. In the Silver Age, Zeus sent a great flood to destroy the human race but the children of Prometheus and his brother survived and the story of Noah also aligns with this time so humanity endured. In the aftermath of the flood, humanity was repopulated by the will of Gaia and not even Zeus can interfere with her will so he turns his attention to his old friend, Prometheus. He binds Prometheus to the side of a mountain where he is to be tortured forever for his crime, but he sees it as something he can endure for the human race and in time there will be someone who has the power to free Prometheus from his eternal punishment.
We then turn to the story of Persephone and most of us will already be familiar with a lot of her story much like we all knew the story of Pandora. The story of Persephone is one that gave us the seasons not because of Persephone herself but her mother Demeter who was sorrowful when her daughter was at Hades’ side but unknown to most, she was happy with her husband and she gave the world a new rhythm. On the back of this well-known love story, we get a lesser known one, the story of Eros and Psyche. Psyche is a mortal woman who Aphrodite sees as a threat to her position and sends her son, Eros, to make her fall in love with a pig only to scratch himself with one of his own arrows and immediately falls in love with the girl. He takes her to his palace and loves her in secret as she is never to look upon him and she falls madly in love with him with is only made stronger when she comes pregnant with their child but she loves for her family. However, her sisters who think themselves better than her poison her mind with mistrust and get her to look upon Eros where she accidently burns him with a drop of oil. At this point she is cast out and intends to kill herself but Pan stops her and gives her the means for her revenge. After orchestrating the deaths of both of her sisters, she is kidnapped by Aphrodite who has learned of their love affair and sets her impossible tasks which with the help of others she manages to complete. Eventually word gets back to Eros and he begs an audience with Zeus and as he recounts his tale, Zeus intervenes. He shows Aphrodite that her position isn’t threatened and makes Psyche immortal where she can always be with her one true love, Eros and she eventually gives birth to a daughter. I actually really liked this story and as we approach the halfway mark in the novel, it seems we are starting to get into tales that are less well known although the story of Io is quite famous.
We learn of the story of Io and how Zeus desired her and turned her into a cow to avoid Hera finding out about her but she did and sent Argus to guard the cow with his 100 eyes. Zeus enlists Hermes, who succeeds in killing Argus and freeing Io but Hera preserved her faithful servant in the eyes of the peacock which forever became associated with her but she made sure Io was out of Zeus’ reach and here she meets the bound Prometheus. Prometheus tells Io that she will return to her human form and give birth to the greatest of the heroes but fails to tell her this hero will also be the one to free him and even though she does give Zeus three children we leave her story for now. We turn then to Athena who has gained the affection of Hephaestus and in his haste to take her chastity, he spills himself onto her thigh which she wipes of with a scarf and throws it away but from where the scarf landed a child is born and Athena hides the child who would later go on to create the city of Athens while maintaining her reputation. We also learn of one of Apollo’s sons who is taunted by the son of Io and Zeus and sets out to find his father and Apollo swears to give him anything. Phaeton asks to ride the sun chariot across the sky and while Apollo tries to dissuade him, he cannot refuse. At first Phaeton is doing well but soon loses control but the chariot plunges into the ocean and he dies. Mourning the loss of his son, Apollo never rides the chariot again passing that duty to Helios, and for Cygnus, Phaeton’s lover he turned him into a mute swan that only sings just before its death. We soon learn of Europa, who much like Io caught Zeus’ eye and he came to her in the form a white bull which carried her to Crete, where she stayed happily and bore him three children who would later becomes the judges of the Underworld.
However, Europa’s four brothers are tasked with looking for her and while three abandon the task only Cadmus continues to search with Harmonia, a loyal follower of Athena at his side. Eventually, they consults the oracle of Delphi who tells them to abandon the search for Europa and follow the cow marks with the half moon until it drops then build but Cadmus sees no such cow and has no idea what he is to build but he understands that he is destined for greatness and is often called the First Hero. Through this story we learn that Cadmus had earnt the rage of Ares, the god of war, by killing the water dragon and together with his lover, Aphrodite, they cursed Cadmus and Harmonia who were both rumoured to be their children until both were turned into snakes before Zeus returned them to their humans forms just before their deaths. We follow their line until we reach Semele, who was not only a lover to Zeus but someone he truly loved and when Hera tricked her into getting Zeus to show his godly form which kills her, he takes their unborn child into his own body until he is born and named Dionysus, the god of wine. We follow Dionysus through his life but we know from modern movies like Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief that Dionysus was cursed and we shall soon find out why. Dionysus was wanted as one of the Olympian twelve but thirteen was an unlucky number so Hestia resigned her place in the group to Dionysus which upsets Hera to no end as he is the only half-human, half-god to be admitted into heaven and she vows never to touch the drink (Wine) associated with him. However, when Aphrodite bears Dionysus a son, Hera cursed the child to be ugly and impotent and this isn’t even the full extent of Hera’s rage towards Dionysus.
The next section of the novel moves us through the love lives of the various gods with their companions both mortal and immortal which was very interesting to learn about but most are common myths and legends that people are familiar with like the story of Aphrodite and Adonis. This brings us to another tale where one is remembered better than the other, Echo and Narcissus. This is a classic tale of narcissism as we are introduced to a nymph, Echo, who likes to talk but earn the wrath of Hera when she protects Zeus who is sleeping with another nymph and she is cursed to only repeat the last words spoken to her given the word echo its meaning. Meanwhile, she falls in love with Narcissus who is tired of being adored for his good looks and he rejects her only to fall in love with his reflection as he doesn’t recognise it as himself. Eventually, Aphrodite releases Echo from her earthly torment because her echoing voice remained and Narcissus was turned into the daffodil. The rest of the stories in the novel are ones we are all familiar with like that of Midas. By the time I reached the end of the novel, I was a little disappointed as most of the book I was already familiar with so I did find myself getting a little bored at times but the saving grace was Fry’s wonderful narration and the footnotes he injects throughout the novel that gives us more information of how the names of the gods, deities and other beings are still found in our language today.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Comments