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Season of myths and mellow fruitfulness
Oct. 23rd, 2021 10:19 amRead xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths, an anthology of short stories retelling or inspired by myths from around the world— it skews heavily towards Greek mythology, but not exclusively so, and actually slightly less than the table of contents suggests; there are a couple of stories influenced by European folk tales that are categorized under squint-and-I-guess-they're-similar Greek myths (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty is labeled as "Eris," for example).
The most popular myths to rewrite/work off of were the stories of Demeter and Persephone (3) and Daedalus and Icarus (4). Interestingly, all three of the Demeter and Persephone stories approached it as a child custody arrangement; the Daedalus and Icarus stories ranged from a sequel to the myth, to ones that seized on certain aspects of the story - labyrinths, flight - and spun it into something entirely different, to one about a squid that builds a rocket ship to go to the sun (Ben Loory's "The Squid Who Fell In Love With The Sun", probably my favorite story in the collection).
( Other stories I liked )
Out of nostalgia, and on a Greek mythology kick, I read a couple of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, which I had been obsessed with in middle school. Re-read the first book, The Lightning Thief, and skipped to the third, The Titan's Curse, because it was always my favorite. They hold up better than I expected! The gods and monsters that show up are all really vivid and fun— very distinct voices, in a way that would make for a fun audiobook or read-aloud. In particular, I find Mr. D - a reluctantly teetotaling Dionysus, in charge of a summer camp for young demigods and super annoyed about it - like 1000% funnier now than I did when I read this series as a preteen.
The most popular myths to rewrite/work off of were the stories of Demeter and Persephone (3) and Daedalus and Icarus (4). Interestingly, all three of the Demeter and Persephone stories approached it as a child custody arrangement; the Daedalus and Icarus stories ranged from a sequel to the myth, to ones that seized on certain aspects of the story - labyrinths, flight - and spun it into something entirely different, to one about a squid that builds a rocket ship to go to the sun (Ben Loory's "The Squid Who Fell In Love With The Sun", probably my favorite story in the collection).
( Other stories I liked )
Out of nostalgia, and on a Greek mythology kick, I read a couple of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, which I had been obsessed with in middle school. Re-read the first book, The Lightning Thief, and skipped to the third, The Titan's Curse, because it was always my favorite. They hold up better than I expected! The gods and monsters that show up are all really vivid and fun— very distinct voices, in a way that would make for a fun audiobook or read-aloud. In particular, I find Mr. D - a reluctantly teetotaling Dionysus, in charge of a summer camp for young demigods and super annoyed about it - like 1000% funnier now than I did when I read this series as a preteen.
