What is Greek Mythology Retellings?
Many books have been written retelling Greek myths, and many myths have survived in several variations. Different writers have selected different characters and events emphasizing particular aspects in their stories. Over time, these myths have continued to evolve, appearing in poetry, drama, paintings, opera, film, and fiction. Modern mythology retellings are part of this long tradition of reimagining ancient stories for new audiences.
A retelling begins with a story, character, or episode from an earlier tradition, yet approaches it from a new perspective. While the original story may be recognizable, the author can ask questions that were left unanswered in ancient texts. What happened before the familiar event? What happened afterward? What was the character thinking? What choices were available to them? What might have been happening outside the version of the story we know best? These questions create important space for the imagination. This space is especially interesting for me, when the central character is a woman whose story has been told primarily in relation to a man.
Circe is known to many from Homer’s Odyssey. She is a powerful enchantress who turns Odysseus’ men to pigs and later assists him to continue his journey back to Ithaca. But Homer tells us little about what happens after Odysseus leaves Aeaea.
That open space became the starting point of An Unexpected Ally: A Greek Tale of Love, Revenge, and Redemption. I imagined Circe continuing her life, making choices, falling in love, experiencing jealousy and facing the consequences of her actions. From there the story expanded to bring in other familiar mythological characters.
Perse offered a different challenge. She is a less familiar figure in Greek mythology, known primarily through her family relationships. Homer and Hesiod give us only fragments of her story. The absence of detail gave me room to imagine Circle of Peace: A Greek Tale of Perse’s Great Hall, and a chance to explore a woman whose influence comes through persuasion, diplomacy, and relationships.
With Ariadne, the familiar story is much stronger. She is associated with the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, Theseus, and the thread that enabled him to find his way out. Yet the thread is only a moment in her life. In Ariadne: A Greek Tale of Labyrinths and Legends, I introduce the heroine before that moment. Her family, her world, her understanding of the conflicts between Crete and Athens, and her own choices are the focal point.
For me, retelling a myth is not correcting the ancient story or claiming that my version is what “really happened.” We often have questions about the historical truth of old stories. What it means is entering the story imaginatively. Ancient myths have been transmitted to us through different authors and traditions, and we do not have a single authoritative version of every story. An author is aware of that uncertainty while creating a fictional world around it. I use surviving traditions as a foundation and then ask what might exist in the spaces between them. That is where Historical fiction and mythology meet.
One reason mythology is so rich is that many women appear briefly in stories dominated by gods, demigods and male heroes. We may know their names but know little about their lives. Sometimes they are remembered for one decisions. Sometimes their importance is reduced to their relationship with famous men. A retelling is an opportunity to shift that focus, asking what the woman saw, what she understood, feared and ultimately chose to do under the circumstances. That does not require turning her into a modern woman living in an ancient costume. She continues to belong to her time and culture. For me, the challenge is to imagine her agency within those limitations.
The main question is why we continue retelling stories we already know. I think it is because the familiar stories change when we change. A child may remember Ariadne for the thread. An adult reader may wonder about the woman holding it. A reader interested in power may see the politics between Crete and Athens. Another may think about family loyalty, love, betrayal, or freedom.
The story has not necessarily changed. Our questions have. That is what appeals to me as a writer. The ancient stories provide recognizable characters and plots, but they also leave openings to imagination.
My Greek Tales series reimagines the ancient Greek world through the voices of women: Circe, Perse, and Ariadne. Three women, their turning points, three stories that explore female agency, resilience, diplomacy, friendship, and the possibility of peace in a world shaped by gods, kings, and war.
The myths belong to the ancient world. The retellings belong to the present. And between them is the space where a writer can ask a new question and begin the story again.
