Troy, The Greek Myths Reimagined

 

Troy, The Greek Myths Reimagined, by Stephen Fry is the third of four books that cover the entire ancient Greek mythology from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, as well as events that occurred both before and after those books by Homer.  I’ve already reviewed the other three books, and I basically raved about the quality of Fry’s efforts as both a writer and narrator of this material. The story of Troy, is certainly the equal of the other three books. Although I’m very familiar with the old Greek myths and other ancient Greek literature, I found this retelling of the stories to be refreshing and wonderous. Fry’s appendix in Troy put all the issues about the timing of these events and his thoughts about myths versus reality into a very acceptable perspective. It’s my opinion that all modern story telling about human drama starts with these Homeric works. He lived, perhaps, in 750 BCE, and the Trojan War occurred several hundred years before then, and it is remarkable that his stories have survived nearly three millennia. He writes about life, death, illness, all sorts of life’s challenges, fidelity/infidelity, love, hate, self-aggrandizing, humility, religion, atheism, war, peace, and so much more. If you’re a fanatic about adventure stories, you owe it to yourself to read Stephen Fry.