Special Topic: Mythology Retellings, a Genre

 

 

An avid reader says to themself, “I want to read about mythology.” They go to the library to find a book and discover that within this genre are dozens of subgenres—from Greek and Roman myths, to Norse, Japanese, Slavic, Hoodoo, and other stories believed in some religions such as Abrahamic mythology, Wiccan deities, and much more. Where should they start? Of all of the mythologies in the history of the world, some of the most popular to read are called the “Classics”; studies of ancient Greece and Rome. Within these two families of mythology are hundreds of gods and goddesses with thousands of tales told about them. These stories are some of the oldest, most well-preserved in the world that are still told to this day; and while they contain many fantastical elements, they often also include some kind of moral or lesson to be learned. For those wishing to explore Classics literature but aren’t quite ready to dive headfirst into Homer’s Iliad, Classical mythology retellings from experts in the field are a great place to start. In my special topics paper, I discuss multiple subgenres.

Artwork by Viria

The first subgenre I discuss is young adult. Rick Riordan definitely dominates this area; his hugely successful Percy Jackson (2005 - 2009) series led to a spinoff series with books twice as thick, assorted companion novels, and three other trilogies featuring Greek and Roman gods, Egyptian gods, and Norse gods. 

  Next come the adult fiction books of Madeline Miller. Her novel The Song of Achilles (2011) took bookstores by storm, and she has since published three other works which have performed well, and is working on a fourth.

The next subgenre, feminist retellings, is a bit more niche but no less popular. Natalie Haynes, Ursula K. Le Guin, Amanda Elyot, and Jennifer Saint have published stories retelling the tales of women in Greek and Roman myths. Haynes in particular published a nonfiction book, Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (2020), which discusses four mythic sagas and the women in each of them. 

 

I grouped together novellas and poetry for the next subgenre, in which I mention Here, the World Entire (2016), a standalone novella by Anwen Hayward, Arch-Conspirator (2023) by Veronica Roth, and several books of poetry by Margaret Atwood.

 

  

The final subgenre I explore is that of graphic novels. Each book in George O'Connor's Olympians (2010 - 2022) is about a different Greek god. Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus (2018 –) started out as a successful webcomic, and is now a printed series. The unique comic series Deadface (1987) by Eddie Campbell is about Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry, who has become one of the last living Roman gods in the present day and is now an elderly barfly. 

 

Whether a reader wants a luminous romance or an action-packed dystopian thriller, they can find a myth to suit them. Some characters, such as Medusa, Helen of Troy, and Circe, are currently very popular and one can find stories about them published as recently as last year. The stories told within the Classics are timeless, which is proven over and over by how many authors seek to tell their own version of each. There are so many different subgenres of retelling; from young adult, to poetry, to graphic novel, these myths have ways of appealing to even the most reluctant reader.