In a world where trends come and go at breakneck speed, one narrative wellspring has endured for millennia, captivating generation after generation: Greek mythology. These epic tales of gods, heroes, and mythical creatures have left an indelible mark on our collective imagination, shaping art, literature, and popular culture in profound ways. But what is it about these ancient stories that continues to resonate so deeply with modern audiences?
The Human Experience, Distilled
According to actress Brie Larson, the staying power of Greek myths lies in their ability to capture the essence of the human experience:
I often wonder about the Greeks and how they were able to get to the bottom of the human experience. Since I was a child I was always drawn to their stories. I find them to be distilled capsules of life, and it’s rewarding and sometimes shocking to realise that as much as we have progressed, we are still bound to pain and loss we cannot escape.
– Brie Larson
This sentiment is echoed by writer and professor Daniel Mendelsohn, who notes that myths “take essential elements of human experience – victory, defeat, shame, betrayal, war, peace – and create a gripping narrative that makes you understand in a very visceral way.”
An Endless Well of Inspiration
For artists across mediums, Greek mythology serves as an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration. Turner Prize-winning artist Chris Ofili, whose work frequently draws upon mythological themes, was particularly struck by Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey:
Wilson’s translation manages to capture the particular way Homer describes colour with similes, which inspired me to produce my own images.
– Chris Ofili
Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, creator of the Broadway hit Hadestown (itself a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth), fondly recalls how the 1976 Santana song “Europa” sparked her early fascination with mythic storytelling:
I think there was something about the marriage of music and storytelling in this song that had my heart from an early age.
– Anaïs Mitchell
Myth and Modernity Intertwined
Far from being relics of a distant past, Greek myths continue to be reimagined and recontextualized in strikingly modern ways. Novelist Pat Barker, author of The Silence of the Girls, sees this as part of a rich continuum:
Everybody talks about the retelling of Greek myths as being a recent event, but actually it’s been a continuing dialogue for centuries.
– Pat Barker
Barker cites Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida as a prime example of how mythic material can be adapted to speak to the concerns of the present moment, with the play’s cynical take on the Trojan War reflecting the disillusionment of the Elizabethan era.
This tradition of using ancient tales to illuminate modern realities lives on in works like Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy, which draws heavily from the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. As writer Rick Riordan observes:
The Hunger Games takes chances in all the right ways, but it resonates for the same reasons that the original myth does. Our hero is an underdog. Their country has been conquered by an aggressive imperialist power. The hero becomes a symbol of fighting against a system that would subjugate us, whether it is a foreign power or an overreaching domestic dictator.
– Rick Riordan
The Timeless Yearning for Home
At the heart of many Greek myths lies the concept of “nostos” – the desire to return home after a long and arduous journey. It’s a theme that resonates as powerfully today as it did in Homer’s time, as author and classics scholar Stephen Fry explains:
This idea of “nostos” – of returning home to the hearth after your wanderings – has been very powerful in the Greek imagination ever since.
– Stephen Fry
Fry points to the poem “Ithaka” by Constantine Cavafy as a masterful exploration of this theme, with the poet reminding us that it is the journey itself, rather than the destination, that gives our lives meaning.
Myth as Living, Breathing Story
Ultimately, what keeps us coming back to Greek myth is its endless malleability – its ability to be shaped and reshaped to fit the needs of each new era. As poet Alice Oswald notes:
There is no point in reading Greek myth in a book. You need to hear the music and see the tree step forward for yourself, and it takes a storyteller to make that happen.
– Alice Oswald
In the hands of skilled interpreters, these tales become living, breathing entities, capable of transporting us to realms both familiar and strange. And as long as there are artists willing to take up the challenge, Greek mythology will continue to cast its spell, reminding us of the enduring power of stories to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit.
