Mythos

Thoughts on Mythos, the Greek myths retold by Stephen Fry

Mythos, a book-club choice, effectively reveals what an extraordinarily large crowd of cunning, self-seeking, vengeful cut-throats and sexual predators the Greek deities and demigods were. Without saying as much, it clearly illustrates that there was no attempt to combine morals with religion in those times. But it is mostly what the book doesn't do that leaves me dissatisfied.

Thus there is little or no attempt to place the myths in a wider context. What are their origins? What are the influences from the prehistoric past? What do they tell us about the people, or peoples, and their societies that devised them? The Hellenic world covered a vast area in the eastern Mediterranean. How widespread was belief in these mythical beings? All, or only some of them? And if morals weren't mixed up with religion, sport certainly was. Why no mention of this?

The ancient Games at Olympia were devoted to Zeus, those at Delphi to Apollo and so on. Participation or attendance was part of a religious duty or devotion. Yet the only mention of sport of any kind comes when Cadmus, said to be unrivalled in throwing stones, the discus and javelin, states that he is pretty good at running round the track as well. Round the track?! The ancient Greeks didn't run round tracks! They ran over a straight course. Then we are told that Cadmus's female companion bursts out: “My hero!” And buries here head on his chest! It makes me wonder whether Fry is writing the script of a third-rate Hollywood film or perhaps a Mills and Boon novelette?

To be fair, it's not all like that, but it does raise the question of whether trying to put twenty-first century supposedly 'with-it' language into the mouths of ancient Greek characters makes the whole thing sound ridiculous. Then Fry admits in his Afterword that he has 'tinkered' with the tales, and says that is what people have always done with myths. But unless we are already very knowledgeable on the subject, how are we to know what is Fry and what is ancient Greek? And if we know all about the myths already, why read this book? Many volumes have been written on the subject. Does this add anything? I doubt it.

One useful thing Fry does, however, is to point out words in the English language that are derived from the names of these beings. But such references are scattered here and there. I would have liked to see a comprehensive list of them, as well as a clearer table of the main deities. I found the great list of names at the beginning simply too long to be anything other than off-putting.

A final thought: without any kind of analysis, reading tale after tale about these characters and their antics simply became tedious. The club as a whole gave the book a weak three out of five, using the Amazon-Goodreads etc. rating system, – which, let it be said, was well below the average on those sites. I gave it two-point five.