Even if you are not a classicist, you have likely come across stories of the Greek gods and heroes. Modern Western culture is steeped in these myths with many words, phrases, and metaphors traveling from ancient Greece to modern English. If you want to learn more about the Greek myths, accessing modern translations of the primary sources is not difficult, and mythology collections litter the discount sections of most bookstores. What does Mythos bring to the table? Can legendary actor and comedian Stephen Fry lend his voice to tell the myths in a way that elevates them above the myriad other collections?
I found this book on an Audible sale, and I picked it up immediately. I had listened to some of Fry’s other narrated books (including an outstanding complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories), and I knew I liked both his narration and his approach to storytelling.
Mythos was written by Stephen Fry who, though best known for his acting, is a scholar of history and has written multiple other history books (author’s website and Amazon profile with his other books). Mythos was released on August 27, 2019. The paperback comes in at 352 pages long and is a fairly quick read considering the engaging style (to be explored more in the in-depth part of the review).
Read on for a detailed breakdown, or click here to jump to the conclusion.
The Greeks created gods that were in their image; warlike but creative, wise but ferocious, loving but jealous, tender but brutal, compassionate, but vengeful.
Purpose
Trying to review Mythos is a bit of a weird task. It is part fiction, part nonfiction, part story, and part history. Because of this weirdness, I am going to change up my review structure from my normal fiction review format and focus on two aspects: the purpose of the book and how it is fulfilled and the clarity/enjoyment of the prose.
In writing Mythos, Fry seems to have a dual purpose. First, he wants to introduce the humor, tragedy, and depth of Greek myths to a new generation in an accessible way; second, he wants to cement the myths in history and show their connections and influences on the modern world.
With the first purpose, Fry knocks it out of the park. One moment, Fry would be telling a story with such humor that I would be laughing out loud, and the next he would be conveying somber topics with sincerity and emotional depth. Do yourself the favor of buying the audiobook version so you can get the emotional depth not only through the prose but also through his excellent narration.
Though I knew most of the myths before this, I had never really gotten to experience them quite like Fry’s structure. He took the disparate myths and put them together into something resembling a single, coherent narrative (as much as that is possible with stories collected and written down over centuries). Fry has done the hard work of reading primary sources and reputable secondary sources and has attempted a timeline of the myths. I found that this structure helped a lot with placing events in time (even though it is mythological and historian debate constantly over the “canonical” timelines of these myths).
The one real drawback to the way he told these stories is that they were sometimes split up into chapters that were too small. Part of that is just the way the myths are (short source material = short chapters). However, he splits chapters or sections in weird places, making the flow a little choppy at times. The short sections can sometimes add to the punchiness and character, but they can also sometimes distract from the storylines.
For the second purpose, Fry again nails it. He has wonderful tidbits strewn throughout the text. One moment, you will be reading the story of Europa, and the next you will get a fascinating linguistic tidbit about how “Bosporus” and “Oxford” both mean “cow crossing” at their root. Somehow, Fry manages to add in these little bits of flavor without feeling unnatural to the flow of the story. Those historical, linguistic, and cultural side notes that are usually included in footnotes are, rather, included in the text itself. By including them in the story, Fry can leverage the human connection to storytelling to cement these facts in a way that footnotes never could.
Prose
Fry’s prose is what really lets the humor and tragedy of these stories shine through. He has a way to tell these age-old stories in a modern, conversational tone. He has a sort of “casual wit” that really draws you into the story. Sometimes, Fry does use coarse language like you would not really expect from a more scholastically-oriented book, but he does not descend into the vulgar. Rather, he comes off as a bard telling a tale around the campfire who is not afraid of toilet humor when it fits the story.
I think one of the coolest ways he uses language is how he sometimes speaks about the characters and events as if they are factual. This style really underscores a point that he makes several times that the myths can be hard to disentangle from historical fact. The myths so infused daily life that their influence could not have been avoided. I have no complaints about the prose other than the mild issue with choppiness from frequent transitions that I mentioned in the “purpose” section.
Conclusion
Mythos is a wonderfully fun time. Whether you are looking for fun stories, a deeper understanding of Greek culture, or a better knowledge of the ways Greece shaped modern life, you will find it here. Fry’s tone, as usual, is wonderful; I often felt like he could have been at the Acropolis telling these stories himself many centuries ago. I find very, very few faults in this book, and I can recommend it wholeheartedly to practically any reader.
You should read this if …
- You like to read. <-That is only partly a joke. This book is for any reader.
- You want to learn more about the Greek myths. I have never found any other collection to be as engaging
- You enjoy some humor in your reading. I sometimes found myself hit very unexpectedly with hilarity, and I would start laughing aloud.
