Mythos | Stephen Fry
Mythos written by Stephen Fry is a contemporary and concise retelling of Greek mythology but with a classical narrative. It doesn’t necessarily travel in a linear manner and sometimes we find similarly named people or places in more than one stories. Having said that, this retelling of classical stories with a relaxed timeline and emphasis on detailing proves to be quite an interesting option. The readers certainly remain entertained till the end of this book, for sure.
The narration begins at the very beginning with the story of Gaia and Tartarus. It talks about the myths surrounding the birth of Titans and how they came to represent major elements in the universe. Titans and Olympians; myths surrounding their origins and their relationships are perhaps the most interesting parts of this book.
Then once the Olympians are established with a large and ever expanding family tree- each member being the patron god of a particular skill or area of mortal life; the storyline tends to slow down a bit. The readers are suddenly overwhelmed with different narratives of familiar stories with not so familiar characters or settings such as the story of King Midas. These retelling of stories having mythical elements are captivating, still they don’t present a coherent narrative.
However even after all of these recurring and so many secondary or plot specific characters, lack of a good storyline and as so many readers noted before me about the indexing goof-ups, I’ll still recommend this book for a brief introduction to the Classical Greek Mythology. Not only the author makes it quite lively but also we can correlate to these ancient stories so much with our modern times. It is certainly worth your time and attention.
