A Return to Mythology

by Paula Gail Benson

I was excited to see The Odyssey as the big summer movie. I remember the joy I had reading Bernard Evslin’s The Trojan War, and very much anticipate watching Christopher Nolan’s adaptation.

Maybe another reason I feel “connected” to Nolan’s production is through the actor Logan Marshall-Green, who plays Melanthius, Odysseus’ disloyal goatherd. Logan and his twin brother, Taylor, are the children of my high school drama teacher, Lowry Marshall, and my college theatre director, Russell Green. I saw the twins as babies not long after they were born. After divorcing, Lowry moved to Rhode Island, where she taught students John F. Kennedy, Jr., and John Krasinski at Brown University. Fortunately, Facebook allowed me to reconnect with her a few years before she passed away. I know she would be tremendously proud of Logan.

Madeline Miller’s books The Song of Achilles and Circe drew me back to mythological reading. Miller’s work brings the stories to a modern audience. She’s extremely skilled at character development and helping readers understand what motivated these mythic and somewhat mysterious beings. I had the chance to meet her when she attended the Decatur Book Festival and was very impressed she had spent some time at Yale School of Drama to learn how to better portray scenes and action.

Currently on my bookshelf is the adult debut novel I, Medusa by New York Times best selling author Ayana Gray. The first book in her speculative young adult series, Beast of Prey, has been optioned by Netflix for a series. In I, Medusa, Gray explores the origin story of a young woman who becomes an acolyte for the goddess Athena then falls from grace.

Recently, I’ve come across another novel reinventing mythology. Ungodly Rich by Katharine McGee is recommended by People and Woman’s World magazines. It’s the contemporary story of Julia Dodds, a young woman working as a tour guide, who meets Harry Adams, an adventurer. There is instant chemistry. After they begin living together, Harry asks her to come home with him to meet his folks. The parents happen to be Zeus and Hera and Harry is actually Ares. How Julia navigates the modern pitfalls of becoming involved with the gods of Olympus is the story.

I’m looking forward to reading Gray’s and McGee’s books. I’m wondering how those works should be categorized. McGee’s sounds as if it might be considered “romantasy,” a combination of romance and fantasy. But is myth categorized as fantasy? Maybe it should be a corollary of speculative fiction called “mythic fiction.” What do you think?