Nat K's Reviews > Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold

"Gods are nothing if not capricious."

A riot of characters and colour burst from these pages. I cannot pretend to be any the wiser about Greek mythology, because, let's face it, there's a cast of thousands involved. And it's hard to keep track of them all. But I had a hell of a good time reading this. Wonderful escapism!

In his imitable style, Stephen Fry brings to life the dawn of time, when gods and goddesses ruled the earth, heavens, seas & sky. He tells us about the squabbles, the jealousies, the lusts. Just like humans, but with an eeny bit more power. He makes them real and relatable. Kind of like if Apollo and Zeus were living next door.

It was fascinating to find that there are so many words we use everyday which are derived from the name of a powerful being or royal being or their offspring (think ocean, typhoon, electron, hygiene, cosmos, panacea, tantalized).

There are scenes of violence & unspeakable acts of cruelty. Likewise sweet, sweet love.

My favourite chapter was the one describing the creation of humankind. Basically, Zeus was "bored". As he said to his good mate Prometheus "... you have absolutely no idea how boring it is to be a god in a complete and finished world... I am cosmically lonely. Is this how it's going to be forever and ever now?" The solution? Zeus asks Prometheus to create a new race, modelled out of clay in the likeness of the gods "A subservient, adoring race of little miniatures." Unfortunately Zeus accidentally squashes some of the newly created statuettes, which is why we don't have green, violet or cobalt blue persons amongst us. Shame, but there you go. Even gods stuff up sometimes.

I also loved the tale of "Echo", who revelled in love and found joy in other's finding love. "It delighted her to ease the path of lovers everywhere." Sadly for Echo, her naïveté led her to unwittingly lie to Zeus' wife Hera, who was busy having another tryst. In revenge, Hera took away Echo's power of speech "You will have no power to reply except to repeat the last thing which has been said to you." This is where echo (echo...echo...) comes from.

Darn Zeus, bit of an all round bad boy. Stand back ladies and gents.

I cannot begin to imagine how much effort went into writing this, there's so much information in this book. There are oodles of "fun facts" and more weighty matters revealed via footnotes. I learnt so much! From serious information to the humorous and whimsical. To top it all off, all of this is done without the book turning into a massive academic yawn. This book is FUN. You can tell Stephen Fry had a blast writing it. His wit, humour & intelligence shine through. Thoroughly readable and immensely enjoyable. I can't recommend it enough. Go on, hang out with the gods for a while 🎉