Don't "Myth" Out On These Great Books!

 

The Odyssey Trailer

        Are you looking forward to the release of Christopher Nolan's reimagining of The Odyssey?  It's definitely become the most talked about book of the year.  Maybe you've even sought out translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey to read in preparation.  Honestly, I read large portions of them in high school, so I am not necessarily interested in re-reading the original stories.  However, here are some suggestions for your reading in case you're in a classic or mythological frame of mind.

    The undisputed legendary text when it comes to mythology is Edith Hamilton's Mythology, originally published in 1942.  It has sold millions of copies throughout the world and established itself as a perennial bestseller. For nearly 80 years, readers have chosen Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes above all other books to discover the enchanting world of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology -- from Odysseus's adventure-filled journey to Odin's effort to postpone the final day of doom. 

 

    Stephen Fry is one of my favorite people on the planet.  Over the last decade or so, he's published four retellings of Greek Myth, retold as only he can.  . The collection spans four volumes: Mythos (origins of the gods), Heroes (demigods and adventures), Troy (the Trojan War), and Odyssey (the treacherous journey home). It's obvious that he loves the stories, and he presents them with an accessible, modern, and incredibly humorous voice.

    Novelist Madeline Miller has retold The Iliad and The Odyssey in very unique ways in her bestselling novels, The Song of Achilles and Circe.  Again, she makes the stories very modern and accessible and infuses them with her own twist:  the Trojan War viewed through the lives and relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and Odysseus' journey through the life of Circe, the nymph witch who falls in love with the Ithacan king on his journey home.  

    Mary Beard is the grande dame  of living classicist historians, an expert and prolific writer concentrating on ancient Rome with numerous books to her credit.

    Mary Renault and Collen McCullough are two highly respected writers of historical fiction, British and Australian respectively, who each wrote multiple novels set in ancient Greece and Rome.

  

    Emma Southon seems poised to take up Mary Beard's mantle.  She is a historian and podcaster specializing in ancient Rome, particularly interested in the lives of women and the enslaved.  Her research and books often emphasize those formerly underrepresented groups.  She also has a fantastic sense of humor which makes her books and podcasts incredibly entertaining and - here's that word again - incredibly accessible to any readers.

  

    If you'd like a brief history of Roman emperors, Barry Strauss' book might be a great start.

    Finally, here are two different views of the great battle of Thermopylae, the treacherous mountain pass where 300 Spartan warriors volunteered to fight to the death in order to slow the huge advancing Persian army.  Gates of Fire is an epic novel that delves deeply into the culture of the Greek city-state Sparta and its citizens.  Frank Miller's hugely popular and over-the-top graphic novel introduced the battle and the Persian War to a huge new audience.