Sing it now, goddess, sing through me

What a year this has been for Greek myths and me! From first picking up Circe by Madeline Miller to being gifted a gorgeous trio of books by my best friend (that's The Iliad, The Odyssey and Aeneid) to again being gifted Mythos by a friend who probably wasn't aware how much he nailed his choice of present, I feel I have plunged straight back into Greek mythology.

And who best to get you excited about the capricious gods than Stephen Fry himself? I can't explain why this man is a living legend, can you? He has an excellent sense of humour and choice of company (give us a bit of Fry and Laurie any day), he is wise and anything he gives his recommendations on is immediately, publicly accepted as worth all your money and time. Have you ever met anyone who didn't like Stephen Fry? I didn't think so.

Mythos is an in-depth retelling of the most well-known, as well as some of the more obscure or less popular Greek myths, from the very creation of earth and foundation of Olympus all the way to... well, it's hard to say. Technically speaking, the linear timeline in the book is created by Stephen himself, but the stories could easily run parallel to each other - the same day that Zeus set his eyes on Semele bathing in the river, Apollo could have been having a musical face-off with Marsyas, for all we know. The point is, individual and connected stories are being told in bite-size chapters, topped with fun subtitles.

What did I like about it?

Only Stephen Fry, with his endless wit and charm, could get away with saying things like "Crimsoning with shame and mortification", or "Such blasphemous acts of lese-majesty seldom went unpunished". His writing style, above all else, carries this book on its wings - it's humorous, it's often satirical, cheeky, hugely enjoyable, and he flaunts a vocabulary that no one else could get away with in a book like this.

I especially enjoyed how he approached dialogue. Here's an example:
'My name...' Thanatos paused for effect. 'My name...'
'I haven't got all night.'
'My name is...'
'Have you even got a name?'
'Thanatos.'
'Oh, so you're Death, are you? Hm.'

Of course, the Greek myths themselves are close to my heart - how can they not be, when they're so full of metamorphosis, tricks, treats, godly battles and jealousy and love and death? It's like an exquisitely enjoyable TV drama with a massive family that's hard to keep track of at its centre. And the enthusiasm that Stephen Fry brings to the text will get anyone excited immediately. He clearly has so much love for the topic and finds so much joy in exploring these stories himself that I couldn't help but be drawn in.

He makes a very interesting point towards the end of the book too about why Greek myths are so enjoyable to him: "Dionysus and Ares were their gods quite as much as Apollo and Athena ... What makes the Greeks so appealing to us is that they seemed to be so subtly, insightfully and animatedly aware of these different sides to their natures."

What was I not massively fond of?

There's little to say here, apart from maybe that I often found it challenging to keep up with all the offsprings and kings and Titans and demi-gods and who was related to whom; but, much like with Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, I decided to give up trying to keep track and just enjoy the flow of the story. Which is really much easier than trying to remember everyone - although I would love to know how many children Zeus managed to produce in all his prime. My guess is around the high fifties.

There is this entertaining family tree included in the book though:

What's that on the right side you say?

I bet you didn't know.

Overall...

Mythos is such a joyride. It's pure juvenile pleasure in the meddling of gods, the mistakes of humans and hellish punishments. If you enjoy a bit of distraction from your everydays and fancy a trip into Greek mythology, this will certainly fulfil your expectations.

Having enjoyed it so much, I am now planning on plunging into The Iliad during the Christmas break. Also, if anyone wants to buy me Stephen Fry's follow-up book, Heroes, I won't say no.

I feel for the Greeks though. Putting up with such jealous, self-obsessed, needy, merciless divinities must have been a total drag.

9/10