Tharindu Dissanayake's Reviews > Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold

"That vacant twelfth throne has got my name on it."

I love all things Greek Mythology: Chaos, Primordials, Titans, Gods, Demigods... what's not to love, with so much to explore. But when the narrative is hilarious like this, it gets even better!

"It is easier to hide a hundred mountains from a jealous wife than one mistress."

Before Riordan's PJO, I had zero knowledge about Greek Mythology. It was something that I never wanted to, or had to, learn of, or read about before. PJO changed all that, hooking me for life, by becoming one of my favorites genres to read about. I was expecting something similar with Mythos, a story based on a single god, or a group of connected ones. But this was a little different that that. Instead of picking a little part of the god tree, and extending a story from there, Stephen Fry starts at the very beginning and goes through the entire family tree of first entities. So, rather than a single continuous story, we have a complication of short-stories, attempting to make the reader familiar with every well-known 'God' we meet in Greek Mythology. Had I ever been enrolled in any of the Greek Myth courses during school days, this would've been one of the most helpful starter-books.

"Mother Maia here took me through the family tree last night. What a nutty bunch we are, eh? Eh?"

Probably like all the readers, what I loved the most about the book was Fry's humor; this was hilarious through and through. Being a collection of independent stories, one cannot expect the book to have a perfect flow, but, for me, being able to laugh, page after page, made up for everything. This one really doesn't need a long review. Whether you love Greek Myth or not, give Mythos a try: this might just be the one to fall in love with it!

Artemis: 'Farther, do you love me?'

Zeus: 'Artemis, what a question! Your know I do. You know I love you with all my heart.'

Artemis: 'Do you love me enough to grant me a wish?'

Zeus: 'Of course my dear.'

Artemis: 'Hm. Come to think, that's nothing. You grant wishes to the smallest and least significant nymphs and water sprites. Would you grant me several wishes?'

Zeus: 'Several wishes? Goodness! Surely you have everything a girl could want?'

Artemis: 'They aren't difficult wishes, daddy. Just the smallest things.'

Zeus: 'Very well, let's hear them.'

Artemis: 'I never ever want to have a boyfriend or husband or have a man touch me, you know, in that way -'

Zeus: 'Yes, yes...er...I fully understand.'

Artemis: 'Also, I want lots of different names, like my brother has. “Appellations”, they’re called. Also a bow, which I notice he has a whole collection of but I don’t because I’m a girl which is totally unfair. I’m the older twin after all. Hephaestus can make me a really special one as a birth present just like he did for Apollo, a silver bow with silver arrows please. And I want a knee-length tunic for hunting in, because long dresses are stupid and impractical. I don’t want dominion over towns or cities, but I do want to rule mountainsides and forests. And stags. I like stags. And dogs, hunting dogs anyway, not lap dogs which are useless. And, if you’d be very very kind, I’d like a choir of young girls to sing my praises in temples and a group of nymphs to walk the dogs and look after me and help protect me from men.'

Zeus: 'Is that it?’

Artemis: 'I think so. Oh, and I’d like the power to make childbirth easier for women. I’ve seen how painful it is. In fact it is actually quite sincerely gross and I want to help make it better.'

Zeus: 'Goodness me. You don’t ask for the moon, do you?'

Artemis: 'Oh, what a good idea! The moon. Yes, I’d love the moon, please. That will be all. I’ll never ask for anything ever again ever.'

Zeus granted every wish. How could he not?