Rating Greek Mythology Retellings

by Sophia Chen

As a child who grew up on Percy Jackson, I've always been very into mythology. Not to be narcissistic, but I'd say I'm a bit of a... well, a bit of an expert, on ancient Greek mythology specifically (outside of PJO, most of my knowledge has come from extensive Wikipedia browsing sessions). Therefore, I'm always looking for new and exciting book adaptations of mythology. I've read several in my time as a Greek mythology nerd -- much more than several, in fact, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites (and non-favorites). So, in no particular order:

1. The Song of Achilles - 7/10

CW for mcd, non-graphic depictions of violence, war, explicit sexual content, implied sexual assault, slavery

Those of you on the literary side of TikTok (also known as "BookTok") have probably heard of Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles. It seems to have gotten really popular in recent years for whatever reason, even though the book is almost our age. Personally, however, I read TSOA way before the most recent craze -- around six years ago (you could call me a trendsetter, or perhaps "ahead of the curve" [and yes, I did write the same thing in a comment under Emma's post]), and I recently reread the book because, to be honest, I had nothing else to read.

Before I proceed, I will say: this is not exactly a book I probably should have been reading at the age of eight. It's actually just, like, a normal book. A book that Costco might be selling alongside titles like Things We Never Got Over and Where the Crawdads Sing, for example. (Libby lists it as a "general audiences" book.) (Costco was selling it in its adult selection a few weeks back, actually, and rereading snippets of it while my parents shopped was partially what inspired me to reread it in its entirety.) What I'm saying is that this isn't really a kid's book. I wouldn't call it an "adult" book, either, though; I'd probably consider it something like Young Adult. My point is, don't recommend this to your younger siblings/cousins.

Anyways.

What The Song of Achilles is about, basically, is the story of Achilles and Patroclus, two "friends" (read: gay lovers) who participated in the Trojan War. Achilles is this great war hero who's half god and can kill basically any man in his sight, whereas Patroclus is some medic dude. I won't give spoilers, for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know how the whole thing goes down, but I will say it's pretty tragic.

In my opinion, TSOA is a really good book for people who love romantic myth retellings. Not like, in the way of romantic love (though there's plenty of that), but in the way of basically sugarcoating the horrors of what went down in mythology. Like those "songs to romanticize studying for biology" playlists on YouTube, for example. Although there is violence, TSOA doesn't really deal with gory details, and it focuses way more on the romance (love-wise, this time) rather than the plot of the Iliad. I will say that it's actually impressively clever, how Miller manages to twist the story and adapt it into something that's way more PG and paints Achilles in a far better light than the source text. So if you're not really comfortable with gore, suffering, or sexual assault, this is probably going to be the only one on the list I would recommend.

The one thing I didn't like about TSOA -- and a big game changer for me, in a negative way -- is Patroclus's characterization. If you've read the Iliad (or Patroclus's Wikipedia page), you know he's a warrior type. He's not as skilled as Achilles, obviously (no one is) but he has, like... power. And a tendency to kill, as well. In TSOA it's very different -- even though he's the narrator, he's also really soft, kind of weak, relatively personality-less, and basically worships Achilles. It's not a power dynamic or a narration setup I super love, so that's why I gave it a lower score.

(Also, just a warning... TSOA is a long book. Like 400 pages. So if that's not your vibe, then it might not be for you.)

2. The Penelopiad - 9/10

CW for murder, sexual assault, death, graphic depictions of violence

The Penelopiad is a book by Margaret Atwood. Like The Song of Achilles, The Penelopiad is one of the softer ones on this list, though it's still way more violent and dark than TSOA. As you might be able to tell from the title (or maybe not, if you're not obsessed with mythology like I am), the main character of the book is Penelope, a princess of Sparta who married Odysseus and became the queen of Ithaca. She's famed for her "faithfulness" to Odysseus after he took twenty years to come home from the Trojan War, and she's often used as an example in ancient Greek plays and epics as the quintessential "perfect wife."

In The Penelopiad, Penelope's character honestly doesn't change much. She's not exactly having affairs or, god forbid, enjoying herself in any way while her arranged-marriage husband goes off for twenty years to possibly die in a shipwreck or something. She's kind of just staying in the palace, taking care of her newborn son (who, spoiler, will grow up within those twenty years and become an ungrateful little menace), and weaving. Because I guess those are the two things ancient Greek women were allowed to do in their free time. Weave and look after children.

Despite her demure actions, however, Penelope is still way more interesting in The Penelopiad than she is in classical mythology -- or at least, than she is in the Iliad and Odyssey. We get a look into her past (AKA, a traumatic childhood full of murderous fathers, neglectful mothers, demonic cousins, and undesirable arranged marriages), which, although technically canon in mythology, is either never spoken about or just glossed over in all of the more important source texts. We also get actual emotions from her, and we get her thoughts on her husband's terrible actions when he returns (basically, he murders practically every other man in the nation and also half their slave women because he believes they betrayed him [this isn't really a spoiler, since it's said in the first few chapters]).

Another thing I really like about this book is the narration style. There is some relatively normal first-person POV narration from Penelope, but thrown in throughout the book are some chapters written in an ancient Greek playscript format, imitating mythology source texts. There's also some really interesting stuff set in the Underworld, after everyone dies, which I loved.

I docked off a point simply for the fact that there's not much of a plot (it's more just vibes and regret), and parts of the book were kind of slow. It's also the shortest one on this list, I'd say, and it's a light read in general (the other ones are much denser than this one).

3. The Silence of the Girls - 10/10

CW for VERY graphic sexual assault, also VERY graphic depictions of violence, also VERY graphic injury/illness, slavery, death, war

This one's probably the most "mature" one on the list, but also my favorite. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is from the perspective of Briseis, Achilles's "prize of honor" (a euphemism for sexual slavery, basically) and the reason why Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel in the Iliad. There's not much to say about this book, honestly, just that it's a very faithful depiction of the Trojan War, but just from a new perspective and with more modern takes on everything. Inevitably, that also means that this book is SUPER graphic, probably the only one out of these three that I would recommend being really careful about for a person of our age demographic. The author is also British, so there are a lot of random idioms and terms that I struggled to get a hold of for a while before I got used to it, but it wasn't too much of an issue for me.

In short, this is a great book that really evokes strong emotions (I actually cried at this one [call me heartless, but I didn't cry at TSOA]), and it's also very accurate to the Iliad, which I really liked. But again, and I canNOT stress this more: be careful with this read, especially if you're sensitive to the topics above. I didn't want to dock off a point for that, since I personally didn't take much issue with it, and I do think it's an important part of the book, but I definitely also think it's something that could make this a negative experience for another person. So, yet again, be careful out there, kids.

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Anyway, that's it. Originally, I was going to do 5, but it got too long and I ran out of time/motivation... maybe I'll continue this sometime. Heaven knows I have enough material.

Thanks for reading.