From Hero to Zero - Why are Greek mythology retellings so popular right now and why are the straight males being pushed from centre stage?
Most people in the Western world have some knowledge of Greek mythology, even if it’s just through watching Disney’s Hercules or the messy noughties film that was Troy. There are also some Greek tales that we just know, without even remembering how we came to learn of them. The story of Icarus flying too close to the sun, and Pandora failing to keep the world’s ills in a box, are so commonplace within our vernacular that most people would understand the references without researching the myths behind them.
Interest in Greek mythology has seen a huge rise in popularity in recent years. Podcasts such as Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! and Ancient History Fangirl have been leading the way, along with an ever-growing number of novels offering a new interpretation of these classic stories. Retellings are not a new idea, both C.S Lewis and Margaret Atwood have turned their hand to them, but the book that arguably brought mythology to the fore in recent years was 2012’s Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. The book tells the story of The Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus and, to much press coverage at the time, explicitly puts hero Achilles and Patroclus in a romantic relationship. In the aftermath of its release, a slow trickle of retellings began to appear on bookshelves and by the time Miller’s follow-up novel, Circe, was released in 2018, it was joined by titles from the likes of Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes and Pat Barker. This trend has continued to grow and there are now a plethora of authors retelling tales of old.
It may seem strange that these stories are having such a huge resurgence millennia after their debuts, but mythologies are the original shared universe, and we all know how popular they are. Characters appear in numerous stories, playing varying degrees of importance, and each narrative has been developed and reshaped over thousands of years, depending on its audience. You only need to look at how many times Spider-Man has been revisited on-screen over the past two decades to get an idea of how appetites for characters can grow and change.
Differing perspectives seems to be a key reason as to why readers are keen to get their hands on these types of books, particularly female characters from myth. So often in Greek mythology the women are either a footnote, an object to be abused, a mother or partner who aids the male hero, or a combination of all three. The female characters that have achieved notoriety throughout the centuries tend to have done so because they are perceived as villains. Medusa and Helen are two of the most famous names that many will be familiar with, and may assume that they know their stories, but both have been featured in recent fiction that aims to give a new perspective on their tales. Medusa was raped by Poseidon and afterwards hid away from the world, yet she is most famous for her ability to turn people into stone and Perseus’ determination to seek her out to kill her. And Helen is often blamed for the ten-year Trojan war, yet it was her husband and brother-in-law who made the decision to wage an arduous war on Troy.
Natalie Haynes, in her book Pandora’s Jar, uses the story of King Midas (the man who was given the ‘gift’ of turning everything he touched into gold) to exemplify the difference between his and Medusa’s stories and, therefore, between the male hero and the female villain. Both have powers that inflict a change on someone, or something, else but the way we view them is completely different. She writes: “We are encouraged to imagine Midas’ story from his point of view. What must it be like [to] have everything we touch turn to gold? How would it feel to crack our teeth on golden bread?” whereas with Medusa “we’re encouraged to see her from the outside: how do we attack her? How do we avoid her gaze? How can we use her decapitated head? We never stop to ask ourselves what it must be like to be her.” This story is echoed throughout mythology; women are not given the same emotional and psychological journey that the men are, and modern-day retellings are exploring that dissonance.
It's not just apparent female villains that are getting a modern-day reboot, either, but those women who are side characters in other people’s stories. The Circe from Miller’s eponymous book has links to several Greek myths, including The Odyssey and Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece, but, as far as we know, hasn’t featured in her own story until the twenty-first century. The character of Ariadne is also crucial to the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, but she is never the focus of that story or given the accolades she deserves. Jenifer Saint’s 2021 book Ariadne finally gave this important, yet sidelined, character the voice she’s been robbed of by history.
As society, slowly, begins to give women more of a voice, it’s clear that this shift is being reflected in literature, particularly in Greek mythology retellings. These stories still appeal to audiences today due to their themes of power, loss and love, and so it’s apt that they are being revisited and giving readers a new insight into their female characters. If I was a betting woman, I would place money that this trend will continue with, hopefully, an increase in other marginalised characters, too. Song of Achilles is testament to how LGBTQ+ themes in myth can create an astonishing story with global appeal and, with so much of Western art white-washing ancient characters, it’s time that literature gave a voice to non-Caucasian characters, too.
The trend for retellings has allowed a subject that has deep roots in academia, which can feel inaccessible for many, to reach a new audience. Like all stories, myths were created to entertain and make sense of the world around us. They inevitably evolved as they travelled throughout the ancient world and so we should thoroughly embrace how they are being examined and reshaped in our modern one.
Written by Ellie Rees
Ellie Rees is an aspiring writer, based in South Wales. She currently works in marketing and dreams of seeing her novel on the shelves of Waterstones Cardiff.
Recipe
