Mythos by Stephen Fry

In Stephen Fry’s vivid retelling we gaze in wonder as wise Athena is born from the cracking open of the great head of Zeus, and follow doomed Persephone into the dark and lonely realm of the Underworld. We shiver when Pandora opens her jar of evil torments and watch with joy as the legendary love affairs between Eros and Psyche unfolds. Mythos captures these extraordinary myths for our modern age – in all their dazzling and deeply human relevance.

The tales in Mythos were mostly vaguely familiar to me but Stephen Fry’s humorous retelling of them brought them all back, starting with the beginning of the world (‘Chaos’).

My edition of Mythos has a helpful family tree at the start of the book. The gods did not seem to have a problem with marrying their siblings and then having an affair with another sibling. It makes the next generations extremely complicated but it was interesting to piece together the stories and work out how all the gods are related to each other.

Fry writes of the beginnings of each of the gods. Aphrodite’s birth is key, and her birthplace is in modern-day Cyprus. Important gods of nature are born, including Apollo (the sun) and Artemis (the moon).

Once the world and its elements have been formed, Fry recreates anecdotes from the gods’ lives and retells the familiar stories such as Pandora’s box, Prometheus’s eternal punishment, Narcissus (who became obsessed with his reflection), and Pyramus and Thisbe.

Some stories appear in the book that I had not heard before, and which pleasingly explain how items got their names. For example, Melissa was a nymph who brought a new substance to a wedding as a gift, which turned out to be honey. Melissa gives her name to the word for honey in several of the romantic languages.

This book is very accessible and was designed so that it does not require any prior knowledge of the Greek myths. The myths are humorously told, interspersed with Fry’s own impressions, and the book is well worth a read.