Percy Jackson and Stephen Fry

By Bobby Neal Winters

I’ve been watching the series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” on Disney Plus with my family.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Percy Jackson, he is a creation of the author Richard Riordan who has written a series of Percy Jackson books in addition to other books which are based on the Greek myths, Roman myths, and Egyptian myths.

He may have explored other mythologies as well, but I’ve got a day job and I just can’t keep up.

If you’ve seen the movie and not been impressed, don’t let that dissuade you from this series.  It takes its time and follows the books more closely.

The principal characters are the half-blood children of the gods born mainly to human mothers.  They are modern teenagers who are trying to make sense of their lives in the modern world.

Not so long ago, I listened to a book called “Mythos” by the English actor and entertainer Stephen Fry. You may be familiar with Fry from “Blackadder” and “Jeeves and Wooster.” The audiobook is read by the author, and it’s worth it for the accent alone.  He also provided his voice for the audio versions of the “Harry Potter” books.

As one might guess, “Mythos” is Fry’s exposition of the Greek myths from Ouranos and Gaia on down.  I look at that word “exposition” and have my doubts.  I might want to say “interpretation” but that almost goes without saying. There are multiple versions of many of the stories that have been interpreted by various authors over the millenia. 

Fry has combed through these on his own--and I get the impression on the original languages. If so, wow. Regardless, he’s picked out his own path and created a harmonization of these stories as near as possible.

The Greek myths have never really gone out of fashion entirely, and you might very well be familiar with some that you read in grade school or in high school, if that was your last exposure, but be warned that the versions you read may have been cleaned up a bit.

They probably left out that Zeus, the king of the gods, was extremely libidinous and went after anything in a skirt--or trousers for that matter--that tickled his fancy.  His having affairs and his wife Hera wreaking vengeance on those with whom he had affairs--and any progeny that resulted from those affairs--is a recurring theme.

Each of the gods/goddesses has their realm of influence; each their personality; each their set of shifting alliances. While each is the personification/idealization of some realm of human experience, e.g. erotic love, art, music, mechanical arts, and represents some sort of perfection within that realm, each is also deeply, deeply flawed.

They are powerful, magical entities, but for someone who comes up through the Judeo-Christian tradition, they are really not God-like at all.  They are more like comic book superheroes than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

All of that having been said, there are certain points of similarity among the stories of Greek mythology and the Bible.  For example, according to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman.  She was given a jar which--unknown to her--contained all the troubles of the world.  She was told not to open it, but her curiosity made her open it.

Compare this with Eve who ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil after having been told not to.  

Now, the similarity is there.(You can check out an article “Eve, Pandora and Plato: How Greek Myth Shaped the First Christian Woman” by Katie Brown on thecollector.com.) But Pandora was created by the gods as a punishment for man while Eve was created by God for Adam as a helper.  In the story of Eve, her part in the Fall is much subtler. I would say that Adam bears the blame rather than Eve.

While it is no surprise that I come down on the side of the Bible, the Greek myths are a treasure as well. Without these in combination, we wouldn’t have western literature.  The whole world would be poorer.

Our literature is important.  It is an important part of the glue that holds us together as a civilization. Whether we get it through novels and poems; comic books and country songs; or scripture and psalms: it is our roadmap for living. 

That being said, we need to be familiar with our roadmap.

Last night while watching “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” I noticed that the half-blood children judge their divine parents through a modern lens. The image that lens gives is not flattering.  It occurred to me this critique of the Greek gods is a Judeo-Christian perspective, one literature interpreting the other.

I can recommend “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” to people of all ages and “Mythos” to the mature. Great stories all around.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like” the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. Search for him by name on YouTube.