So, recently discovered this sub & I have a question/challenge. I've always adored greek mythology but recently it's become a hyper fixation (I'm AuDHD).
I genuinely think I've read all the 'modern retellings' of greek mythology I can find.
The best
– Stephen Fry's 4 part of mythology, Iliad & Odyssey
– Circe
– The Silence of the Girls trilogy
– Psyche & Eros
– Ariadne
There are obviously tonnes of retellings but the reason these stood out were excellent story telling & writing style, extremely gripping & visceral.
Has anyone found any more similar to these?
Bonus I also love historic sex worker novels as I'm a sex worker, The Wolf Den Trilogy was another favourite but not Greek based.
by PerseveranceSmith
4 Comments
One possible pivot-point from modern retellings is a good, modern translation of an actual ancient Greek/Roman text (I include Roman because of course the Romans were great synthesizers of Greek mythology and some of our better sources for Greek myth come from them).
Obvious starting points would be *The Iliad* and *The Odyssey*, though even in great translations they can sometimes be a bit difficult. If you wanted to give them a shot though then the Fagles translations are good go-tos.
More accessible would be Ovid’s *Metamorphoses*, probably in the recent very well-regarded Stephanie McCarter translated Penguin Classics edition.
I’ve read all of the same books you have and am also deep in my Greek mythology fixation phase!
I liked Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller (I listened to Circe first and like them both about the same)
Also I know this is for book recommendations but the Netflix show Kaos and the game Hades (one and two) are great for scratching the greek mythology itch.
Going to follow this post because I really need more book recommendations as well!
Not a novel, but a short story: L’esprit de L’escalier by Catherynne M. Valente. Published free on the Reactor Magazine website but I can’t link it or this comment will be auto-filtered.
The Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer. Greek mythology is a big part of this story, but not until book 4. There are sex workers, but this is sci fi set in the future.
Natalie Haynes.
Writes both fiction and non-fiction, it’s all brilliant