Heroes

Main Review:

Given that we are still deep in lockdown mode, I’ve been keen to find ways to bring the summer spirit indoors. Between Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Mamma Mia and The Durrells, I’ve spent most of the Easter break submerged in the idyllic scenery of Greece and its many islands. As I was sailing round Ancient Greece on my boat in Odyssey, I began to realise that, whilst I’m a big fan of the Trojan War, my knowledge of the “Heroes” like Heracles and Perseus was woefully lacking, and in the case of Heracles, was almost entirely based on his Disney identity. With time on my hands to correct this absence, I looked to Stephen Fry’s Heroes to educate myself right.

Heroes is Stephen Fry’s second book about all things Ancient Greek – having handled the creation of the world and the adventures of the Gods and Titans in Mythos – his second instalment moves on to talk about the likes of Heracles, Jason, Atalanta, Perseus and more. Whilst he says that having read Mythos is not required, there are a lot of references to events covered there throughout Heroes, so I would recommend starting with it first and then moving on to this book – otherwise you’ll miss out on quite a lot of context.

The stories in Heroes are written in a very accessible way – ‘modern’ without overly adapting the source material. I was worried that the book would come off a little “Look how much I know about the myths” but Fry is a wonderful story-teller; and it seems evident that he has a real passion for the stories he’s telling. I was especially fond of his pronunciation guides – having always been a little intimated by some of the place names (Does anyone pronounce Boeotia right on their first go?). He also does well to try and explain the massive amount of (usually incestuous) connections between the various gods, mortals, and creatures of the various myths. He gives a lot of context and background when needed but is always aware that not everyone wants to spend half their reading time cross-checking multiple family trees. Like Hermes in the Underworld – he is an exemplary guide to the setting and its characters. There’s a lot of funny little asides in the book which I greatly enjoyed, such as when talking about one of Zeus’ many ‘conquests’ and remarking that “Zeus was never anything if not Zeus”.

The book divides itself up by hero, and then within these the stories are split into smaller, manageable sections. It would function very well as a sort of ‘bed-time story for adults’ – reading a couple of the adventures each night. The bigger sections on Jason and Heracles were very interesting, especially seeing just how ‘Disney-fied’ Hercules was, what with it swapping Hades out for the actual villain of the story – Hera. Like the MCU today, all the heroes connect together, either by directly encountering each other or by having to deal with the fall-out of another hero’s actions.

Whilst the more popular heroes get a lot of time in the spotlight, I also loved learning about some of the less famous warriors. When running around in Odyssey you can end up collecting a lot of equipment linked to famous characters (a notable example is Paris’ Bow), and during my own game I picked up the Sandals of Atalanta, a figure I must admit I had not heard of. Having now been able to read up on her, and her story of being raised by a bear before becoming the champion of Artemis who could outrace, outshoot and outfight any man, I am happy to report that I have no choice but to stan, and will not be taking any further questions at this time. The book also finally made it twig with me that the Theseus and Hippolyta from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are the Greek Hero and Queen of the Amazons™, which I will be making use of in all future production ideas.

My only real criticism of the book is that it is clear that this is only meant to be one piece of a wider series. Like Halo 2, the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie and countless other sequels, it becomes quite obvious as the book draws to a close that its preparing for another instalment – with Heroes setting the stage for another book centred around the Trojan War. Whenever the events are mentioned in this book, it is done Maz Kanata style, saying that it’s a ‘good story, for another time’. Obviously you cannot include every character in a single book, but having enjoyed Heroes so much whilst reading it, I found the tantalising for another instalment just a little too much, it makes you hungry for the next one before you’ve properly had a chance to finish enjoying the book you’re already reading.

As always, let me know what your thoughts are – and I hope you are all staying safe during these interesting times.