Before we had the Harry Potter books or The Lord of the Rings, storytellers told great myths about gods and goddesses. These deities fought battles, fell in love, and often meddled in the affairs of mortals. Other legends tell of heroes like King Arthur and Odysseus who go on fantastical quests.
These are some of the earliest known stories and legends we have, and many modern authors now draw inspiration from them. They take minor characters from epic legends and explore their perspectives, or work to make these old tales more accessible to today’s audiences.
Here are ten modern reads with a delightful dose of ancient mythology.
1) The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
This saga tells the story of the women behind King Arthur’s throne. The adventures of Camelot’s court are viewed through the eyes of the women who helped the king to rise and schemed toward his fall. The reader follows these women from childhood as they achieve their destinies and the great Arthurian epic unfolds.
If you have any familiarity with Arthurian legend, you’ve probably heard of Morgan le Fay. She’s known for being an evil priestess and sorceress who seeks the defeat of the Round Table. This book delves into her character and makes her into much more than a one-dimensional villain. She’s a strong woman with special gifts who has to shoulder heavy responsibilities. She must work to remain resilient as Christianity threatens to destroy her pagan way of life.
2) The A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas
After nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a horrifying creature arrives seeking revenge. The creature drags her to a treacherous magical land Feyre only knows of from legends and she learns that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the immortal faeries who used to rule her world. As Feyre adapts to her new surroundings, her hostility toward Tamlin the faerie shifts into a fiery passion. But an ancient, wicked shadow is growing and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin and his world forever.
This popular YA series is by the same author who wrote the Throne of Glass books. It is a retelling of several myths and fairy tales, including Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and the Greek myth Hades and Persephone. The second book in the series, A Court of Mist and Fury, has elements of Hades and Persephone, a story about how Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter, was kidnapped by Hades, God of the Underworld, and later became the Queen of the Underworld.
3) Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
This book includes a series of stories of Norse mythology which takes the Norse gods and their world from their origin through their upheaval in Ragnarök. The stories include wise, daring, and cunning Odin; Thor, Odin’s strong yet not very wise son; and Loki, blood brother to Odin and a skilled trickster and manipulator. They delve into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants.
With this book of short stories, Neil Gaiman breathes new life into these old tales and makes them accessible to a modern audience. Gaiman stays true to the original myths but uses his fantastic writing and voice to make the stories his own. The tales are organized in such a way that the book feels novelistic, with a beginning, middle, and uproarious end.
4) Grendel by John Gardner
The old epic Beowulf made Beowulf look like a courageous hero and his opponent Grendel like a fearsome monster. But this book is from Grendel’s point of view and allows him to tell his side of the story.
Grendel follows its titular monster as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo-Saxon epic. Like Wicked by Gregory Maguire (which later became the basis for the famed musical), this book gives a famous villain the chance to let us see things from his perspective. The characters in this book are full and rich, and the imagery is well-drawn.
5) The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Patroclus is an awkward prince whose father hates him for being weak, and he is exiled after an act of shocking violence. All alone, he works hard to find the purpose of his existence. Brought together by chance, he and Achilles, the son of a cruel sea goddess, forge an unbreakable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. The centaur Chiron trains them in the art of war and medicine but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles is seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny and joins the cause to lay siege to Troy in Helen’s name. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both and demand an awful sacrifice.
This book is a retelling of The Iliad by Homer. Even if you’ve never read The Iliad and know nothing of the Trojan War, you will still be able to enjoy this deftly written and heartbreaking book. I bet you can’t get through the novel without tearing up at least once.
6) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
In the hopes of shaking up his humdrum life, Richard Papen transfers to an elite New England college. He becomes entranced by a group of eccentric misfits—particularly by the lovely Camilla. He gets himself a spot in their classics class and falls under the spell of their charismatic professor, who introduces a way of thought and life that is a world away from their banal contemporaries. But then something goes horribly wrong, and Richard must decide how loyal he truly is to his new friends.
I have brought up this novel time and time again since it is, in my opinion, one of the best books there is. In addition to fantastic characters, a gripping mystery, and beautiful prose, this story includes several references to Greek mythology through the students’ classics class. The characters believe so fervently in the power of these myths that they end up enacting one of them.
7) Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
The hero of Virgil’s The Aeneid fights to claim Lavinia, the king’s daughter, with whom he is destined to found an empire, while Lavinia never speaks a word. Now she has a voice and we learn her story of growing up knowing peace and freedom. But this ends when the suitors come. Her mother desires that she marry good-looking, ambitious Turnus, but omens and prophecies say she must marry a foreigner and that she will be the cause of a terrible war. When Trojan ships sail up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands.
This title by sci-fi master Ursula K. Le Guin is another book that has come up before on the blog. In Roman mythology, Lavinia is the daughter of Latinus and Amata, and the last wife of Aeneas. Similar to Grendel, this book enables a secondary character to tell their story. Lavinia doesn’t have a single line in The Aeneid but this novel delves deep into her biography and the love of her life. It allows this ancient epic to come to life in a new way.
8) American Gods by Neil Gaiman
After three years in prison, just days before his release, Shadow’s wife and best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces, he accepts a job from an eccentric stranger he meets on the way home who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. He becomes Wednesday’s driver, bodyguard, and errand boy. This job takes him on a strange road trip and introduces him to a host of odd characters. On the way, Shadow will learn that everyone harbors secrets—even his beloved wife—and that legends, dreams, totems, and myths are more real than we know.
As with this post about modern fairy tales, I couldn’t resist including more than one Neil Gaiman book on this list. Rather than a book of retold myths, American Gods weaves mythology into a fictional narrative. This book brings together the mythologies of various regions across the world and spins them all together magnificently. It questions the nature of mythological storytelling and its impact on modern society.
9) The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel by Zachary Mason
The Lost Books of the Odyssey reimagines Homer's The Odyssey, which tells the story of the great hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. The book includes alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer’s original. These stories open up Homer’s classic Greek myth to endless interpretations.
This book is full of beautifully written, wickedly clever stories that add new insight and ideas to The Odyssey. In a brief 228 pages, you can easily enjoy a few bite-sized stories at a time. Like John Gardner and Ursula K. Le Guin, Zachary Mason offers alternate perspectives from minor characters.
10) “The Lunar Hunt” by Kate Seger
As Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis protects the forests of Etherea from the metal wizards. When a spaceship lands in what was once the realm of man, she will do anything to drive off the invaders. Solara is a human space traveler on a mission to reconnect with her ancestors on a planet that her kind once called home. She senses hostility in this crumbling world but must follow her orders, which are to track the heat signature she’s detected. Two worlds collide and the Lunar Hunt begins.
This short story swept Fictionate’s July 2022 worldbuilding short fiction contest and won three awards in different categories—Fourth Place Grand Prize, tied for Third Place in the People’s Choice category, and Second Place in the Best DIY Book Cover category. In this story, Kate masterfully weaves ancient Greek mythology into her fascinating sci-fi world. You can read this story for free right here on Fictionate, and enjoy an interview with Kate Seger here.
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