Kathy Hamilton Myths and legends have provided us with endless entertainment for thousands of years. But these books inspired by Greek Mythology look at the myths with fresh eyes. With new settings and modern interpretations, it’s surprising how modern the myths really feel.
Helen, Circe, Clytemnestra, Penelope, Medusa, Cassandra…the women in Greek Mythology get a rubbish deal, don’t they? Abandoned, sacrificed, exiled, betrayed or silent. Exploring their stories isn’t a priority. But that’s changing.
Researching this list of books inspired by Greek Mythology, I noticed a strong theme emerging. Modern authors are taking classic stories and giving voices to the women in them. These retellings reshape are reshaping the way we look at Greek Mythology altogether.
Circe by Madeline Miller
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Yet Circe stands apart. With neither the look nor the voice of divinity, Circe is increasingly isolated. Turning to mortals for companionship, she risks defying her father for a discovery of a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft. Banished, Circe refines her craft, fate entwining her with legends. As her power increases and her knowledge grows, so Circe must make the ultimate choice: to decide whether she belongs with the deities she is born from or the mortals she has come to love.
Why You Should Read It
Let’s be honest, this is probably the book that springs to mind first when I say ‘books inspired by Greek Mythology’ isn’t it? And for good reason too! Madeline Miller’s gripping retelling of the Odyssey from the perspective of Circe is magnificent. If only a bit player in the original myth, Miller transforms Circe effortlessly into the main protagonist here. Revealing the person behind the enchantress who beguiled Odysseus. This book is a lyrical and absorbing read that will make you see an old tale with new eyes.
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
In the middle of the night, Creusa wakes to find her beloved Troy engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of brutal conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over, and the Greeks are victorious. Over the next few hours, the only life she has ever known will turn to ash…The devastating consequences of the fall of Troy stretch from Mount Olympus to Mount Ida, from the citadel of Troy to the distant Greek islands, and across oceans and sky in between.
Why You Should Read It
A Thousand Ships was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 and is the latest book inspired by Greek Mythology to gain plaudits. Unlike other novels in this list, A Thousand Ships is powerfully told from an all-female cast rather than a singular voice. It recounts the stories of the women embroiled in the Trojan Wars and its terrible aftermath, as well as the feud and the fatal decisions that started it all. A Thousand Ships gives voices to the women, girls and goddesses who, for so long, have been silent. Well worth a read if you are interested in what happens to all the other characters in Greek myths.
Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
This is a story about the kind of fluidity that can’t be bottled and sold. It is about girls and boys. Girls and girls. Love and transformation. A story of puns and doubles, reversals and revelations. Funny and fresh, poetic and political, here is a tale of change for the modern world.
Why You Should Read It
Girl meets boy. It’s a story older than the Greek Myths themselves. But, as is her way, Ali Smith takes this ancient beginning in her Whitbread winning novel and transforms it. Taking the action from Ancient Greece to Modern Inverness and telling it through the eyes of sisters, Anthea and Imogen. In this lyrical, funny, mash-up of Ovid’s most joyful gender-bending metamorphosis story, girl meets boy in so many more ways than one.
An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigoze Obioma
Set on the outskirts of Umuahia, Nigeria and narrated by a chi, or guardian spirit, An Orchestra of Minorities tells the story of Chinonso, a young poultry farmer whose soul is ignited when he sees a woman attempting to jump from a highway bridge. Bonded by this strange night on the bridge, he and Ndali fall in love, but it is a mismatch according to her family who rejects him because of his lowly status. Is it love or madness that makes Chinonso think he can change his destiny?
Why You Should Read It
The book was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2019 and you can see why. Spanning continents, traversing the earth and cosmic spaces, and told by a narrator who has lived for hundreds of years, the novel is a contemporary twist of Homer’s Odyssey. Written in the mythic style of the Igbo literary tradition, which Chigozie Obioma uses to weave together an ancient epic and a new perspective, to bring you a book inspired by Greek Mythology that will captivate and inspire you anew.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Attwood
Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumours, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids.
Why You Should Read It
This is the second book from the Canongate ‘Myths’ Series to feature in this post. Margaret Atwood is amazing at taking a tale you think you know and twisting it into something far more interesting. In The Penelopiad she chooses to give voice to Penelope and her twelve hanged maids, asking: “What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?” Wise and compassionate as it is haunting, this book Penelope and her maids a new reality.
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she is finally studying in America But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London – or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to – or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation?
Why You Should Read It
In this former Women’s Prize-winning novel, Kamila Shamsie tackles the myth of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus. Yeah…the guy that married his mother! In the backdrop of modern London, Home Fire is an urgent, fiercely compelling story of loyalties torn apart when love and politics collide. I particularly liked the idea of including this in my list of books inspired by Greek mythology because I was so intrigued with the direction Kamila Shamsie took her retelling. Proving just how timeless the myths really are.
Ithaca Forever: Penelope Speaks by Luigi Malerba
After twenty years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, but instead of receiving the homecoming he had hoped for finds himself caught in an intense battle of wills with his faithful and long-suffering wife Penelope. When Penelope recognises him under the guise of a beggar, she becomes furious with him for not trusting her enough to include her in his plans for ridding the palace of the Suitors. As a result, she plays her own game of fictions to make him suffer for this lack of faith.
Why You Should Read It
Really, another tale about Penelope? Yes! The Odyssey truly is the gift that keeps on giving, when the gift in question is inspiration! Ithaca Forever was originally published in Italian in 1997 and finally translated into English in 2019. Thank goodness! Since this is a captivating retelling of the Odyssey where Penelope rises as a major force to be reckoned with. It’s also one of the shortest books in this list of books inspired by Greek Mythology. Coming in at 184 pages, it’s the perfect choice for those of us who are intimidated by 500+ page novels. *Cough* looking at you An Orchestra of Minorities! As a bonus, you can also read a free excerpt of Ithaca Forever here.
House of Names by Colm Tóibín
On the day of his daughter’s wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice. His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory. Three years later, he returns home and finds his family torn apart. As his wife seeks his death, his daughter, Electra, is the silent observer. While his son, Orestes, is sent into bewildering, exile. Out of their desolating loss, Electra and Orestes must find a way to right these wrongs of the past even if it means committing themselves to a terrible, barbarous act.
Why You Should Read It
Now it’s time for Irish literary heavyweight Colm Toibin to tackle a Greek Myth. This time the tragedy of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. House of Names shows off Toibin’s range. This book is about as far from Brooklyn as you can get! House of Names is a story of intense longing and shocking betrayal and work of great beauty, and daring. I especially appreciate that he tackles the story of Clytemnestra, who has been reviled and hated through history. This book gives her humanity and tries to give an understanding of her actions.
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis’s old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she’s not alone: innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.
Why You Should Read It
Pat Barker’s thrilling retelling of The Iliad wrestles the drama of the Trojan War away from its usual male-centric gaze. In The Silence of the Girls, she seeks out the other story, the women’s story. The choice to re-centre the narrative is what gives this book it’s fresh feel. Pat Barker has an earthier tone to her writing. If you’re a fan of the lyrical dreaminess of myths, this book will not give you that. Instead, she breathes life, in all its sordid realities, into the dream and makes it all the more compelling for doing so.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. But the acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye decides to become a vegetarian. The problem is, this decision is a shocking act of subversion and leaves Yeong-hye open to all manner of abuse. The Vegetarian is a novel about modern-day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
Why You Should Read It
I was tempted not to include The Vegetarian by Han Kang on this list of books inspired by Greek Mythology. It is (very) loosely based on the myth of Daphne, who turned herself into a tree to avoid the unwanted attentions of Zeus. However, ultimately, I was fascinated to see how a Greek myth could be retold in such a different context but ultimately have the same meaning. This book is an engrossing, at times uncomfortable read but one that will keep you interested until the last page.
*Bonus* The Laugh of Medusa by Helene Cixous
Helen of Troy is the face that launched 1000 ships. But The Laugh of Medusa helped to launch the second wave of feminism. Published in 1976, this is not a novel but rather an essay. Which centres around on 20th-century perceptions of Medusa as a figure for female rage.
Cixous explores how women can earn a place in the “phallocentric” literary and critical tradition. She suggests that Women’s writing, when done right, has the potential to rupture the status quo and turn the old power structures to stone, a good thing. “You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her.” she says, “And she isn’t’ deadly. She’s beautiful and laughing.”
Want More Books Based on Greek Mythology?
When I originally decided to write this post (in 2020) I had no idea that there would be an explosion of books inspired by Greek Mythology. This list still offers a fantastic starting point for readers interested in exploring the genre but I encourage you to keep a look out for new titles. How exciting for those of us inspired by ancient myths to have so many amazing books at our finger tips!
