Have the myth-busters
gone too far?
By Morgan St. Knight
I’ll be honest: this is a
hot-button issue for me. I’m a huge fan of classical mythology. I am not a huge fan of the whole
“reimagining” trend that seems to have skewed the portrayals of mythological
characters in print, movies and television these days.
I know I walk a thin line myself with some of
the creative license I take in my first book, “Curse of Prometheus: a tale of
Medea”. My interpretation of the myth of
Prometheus, not to mention the deaths of Medea’s children, is definitely
rewriting the standard storyline. Oh Muses, let me not be a hypocrite, let not
my own words come back to bite me in the posterior!
It’s not that I don’t understand
the need for reinterpretation to keep a story fresh and relevant for a modern
audience. I really do. But sometimes, it just goes too far.
So where do I draw the line? As the
late Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart said about porn, I know it when I see
it. My gauge is this: does the interpretation make me say: “Well, it could have happened that way,” or does
it leave me saying “No way, that’s absolutely ridiculous!”
For example, “The Mists of Avalon”
was a compelling reinterpretation of Arthurian myth that was absolutely
believable. I could see the story unfolding that way. Marvel’s interpretation
of Thor and the other gods of Asgard? Yeah,
I can buy it.
When does it cross into the realm
of the unbelievable? For me, it happens when a writer takes away the original
dignity of the mythological figures involved and reduces them to caricatures.
For classical mythology, the trend
started in earnest in the 1990s with the “Hercules” series starring Kevin
Sorbo, and continued with the spinoff series “Xena: Warrior Princess” and
“Young Hercules”. All of them reduced the Greek gods to one-dimensional clowns
or penny-dreadful villains who took delight in torturing humans for no reason. Aphrodite
as a Valley girl? Apollo as a surfer dude? And, most heinous of all, the
plotline at the end of the Xena series which allowed the gods of Olympus to be
killed. Just like that.
No, no, NO! The gods of Olympus are immortal. They do not die. But
writers jumped on that bandwagon, and now it’s become a feasible plotline when
dealing with Greek gods (look at “Wrath of the Titans”). Making the gods into
all-too-human characters who are quick with a wisecrack but can’t get out of a
locked closet (because humans don’t pray to them anymore, and that apparently
is the only source of their power) is a common trope now.
I know there are those who will
argue that making characters like Greek gods vulnerable is a necessary
adaptation. I attended a workshop taught by a writer who insisted that you
can’t have an immortal main character, because the reader needs the tension
generated by the possibility that the character could die. That same writer
also said you should never, ever write a book in the first person because that
character can’t die believably if you want to keep the first person narration
uninterrupted, so automatically the reader will lose interest.
I guess she never read “The Lovely
Bones” or “The Vampire Lestat”, both of which utilized first person. Both of which, if I remember, did very well in
book sales. So much for readers not being interested.
So yes, I may be a stick in the
mud, but when I write about the ancient gods in a modern setting, I intend to
keep their original majesty and power intact. I’m not going dumb them down.
It’s not about being stubborn or blindly adhering to some cannon. It’s about
getting creative with what is already there, rather than tossing out the basic
premises just because they pose challenges.
If you tell your guests you’re
serving hamburgers, then get good beef, mix in good seasonings, and fire up the
grill. Don’t head out to McDonald’s for the dumbed-down version of a good
hamburger. If you’re giving your readers Greek gods, give them honest-to-goodness
Greek gods, not watered-down clowns who couldn’t find their a** with both hands
in the dark.
As for the gods being immortal, as
many writers in the paranormal genre can tell you, there are far worse fates
than death, especially if you have to live that fate for eternity. In that
sense, the gods really do have it harder than the rest of us.
Curse of Prometheus:
A Tale of Medea
Morgan St. Knight
Genre: Paranormal/urban fantasy
AISN: B00HRG6FEA
ISBN-13: 978-0991396092
Number of pages: 276
Word count: 107,000
The ancient world's most notorious sorceress has just become the modern world's only hope for survival.
Book Description:
How do you fight a god of light who has been seduced by darkness? That’s the challenge Medea Keres must meet. Posing as a wealthy young heiress in modern day Atlanta, no one knows she is the original Medea, the sorceress from ancient Greek legends.
As priestess of the witch goddess Hecate, Medea is charged with hunting demons that would otherwise overrun the world. Now she must face a far greater adversary. One of the twelve shining Olympian gods has turned rogue, violating the edict against human sacrifice. As the body count quickly rises, Medea knows her enemy is getting stronger.
With the help of the underworld nymph Orphne and the hero-god Heracles, she must find a way to unmask the evil so that the other Olympians will take action.
But as she probes deeper into a blood-soaked labyrinth of suspense and intrigue, Medea finds a net of deceit and treachery that will require all of her cunning to escape.
Available at Amazon
Excerpt
Pasiphae
turned back to Heracles, her nose wrinkling instinctively at the sight of the
two corpses he was carrying, one slung over each shoulder.
“And
these would be?”
“Someone
I need help with,” I offered tentatively.
Circe
raised an eyebrow. “I know you understand the healing arts better than that,
Medea. These two are a long way past help and... Heracles, what are you DOING?”
Her
voice became progressively shriller as Heracles approached one of the hall’s
spotless divans. It was upholstered in beautiful pastel pinks and mauves.
“Just
putting these chaps down, my dear,” Heracles said cheerfully. I’d chosen the
least mutilated corpses among the field hands, but they were still quite a
mess.
“You
most certainly are not!” Circe’s golden eyes were already flashing. Heracles
froze in mid-stoop, quickly re-adjusting his balance to stop the bodies from
falling onto the sofa. I couldn’t help giggling a bit at the comic pose, but I
don’t suppose he saw anything funny about it.
“For
pity’s sake, it took me nearly a hundred years to perfect the magic to weave
dawn’s light into fabric. I will NOT have you putting those—things—on the
furniture,” Circe fumed.
She
turned to me.
“It’s
always delightful to see you Medea, and your friends,” she condescended to give
a slight nod towards Orphne. “And I realize you’re living a more Bohemian
lifestyle these days. But really! You can’t tell me your human friends would
appreciate you bringing two dead bodies when you come to call. Couldn’t you
just bring chocolates?”
“I’m
not going to leave them here, Aunt Circe,” I reassured her. “And I promise I’ll
bring some chocolates next time I come. But first, I need you to help me find
out something about them.”
She
snorted impatiently.
“They’re
dead and they’ve started to rot. There, that’s two things about them. Will you
kindly remove them now?”
I
smiled and shook my head.
“I
mean something specific. And you and Pasiphae are the only ones I know who have
the skill to do it.” I was buttering them up shamelessly, and they knew it.
Heracles
cleared his throat diplomatically.
“Not
that they’re really any sort of burden to me, but do you mind if I put these
fellows down now? I think one of them is seeping.”
Pasiphae
rolled her eyes. “Certainly, just toss them anywhere. We don’t mind oozing
corpses on the floor at all. Why not invite the Harpies over for a potluck
while you’re about it?” Now that was overstating the case a bit. The evil
half-bird, half-woman monsters were voracious eaters. If they left anything
uneaten, they fouled it with their shit out of sheer spite.
Circe
held up her hands in a gesture of defeat. “Just let me handle it,” she said,
facing Heracles and lifting her arms. The two bodies floated off his shoulders
and remained suspended in mid-air. He stood up, making
a relieved sound in his throat. Sure enough, there was a large smudge on his
skimpy outfit.
“Here,
let me,” I said. I went over and put my hand on the stain. Of course I could
have done it without touching, but what the hell, why not cop a feel if the
opportunity arose? The muscles of a god are nothing to miss if you get the
chance.
I
removed my hand after a few seconds, and the tunic was immaculate.
“Could
we please get back to the issues at hand?” Pasiphae interrupted as she gestured
towards the floating bodies. “What do you need us to do with those?”
“I
need you to bring them back to life, so they can tell me about their deaths,” I
said.
Circe
and Pasiphae looked at one another. Whether or not they were communicating
telepathically, I was certain they were thinking the same thing.
“Well,
that settles it. You’ve become completely unhinged.” Pasiphae said with
resignation. “Why would you bring two dead humans here for something that you
could just as easily ask Hecate to do? In the privacy of your own home, if
needed. You’re her priestess, after all. And if I’m not mistaken, she is an
underworld goddess, no? This should be a specialty of hers.”
“Yes,”
I admitted. “But I can’t get her involved just yet. I’ve got... a slight
problem to deal with.”
The
refreshments had arrived. Wine was being poured at a table surrounded by more
divans, and another nymph had brought in a tray of pastries soaked in honey.
Circe
gestured to the seating area, extending the move a bit to wave the bodies away
to a corner of the room. They hung like sulking children denied a place at the
grownups’ table.
“Tell
us all about it. And make sure to include all of the juicy details.”
I
wondered if she’d regret her invitation once she heard what I had to say.
About the Author:
Morgan St. Knight live in Atlanta, and is a lifelong student of mythology, the occult, and comparative religion. With more than 25 years of experience as a journalist, Morgan enjoys the occasional foray into fantasyland to escape the grim realities of life. He is currently working on the sequel to "Curse of Prometheus" and is developing a second paranormal series which also takes place in the South.
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To win, you just have to follow Morgan on Twitter @MorganStKnight and send a tweet that says "Entering giveaway for CoP". Only one tweet is necessary, but you must send that one tweet to know you're interested in entering the giveaway.
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Thanks for hosting me on your site today! If any readers have questions or comments, they can contact me at morganstknight@hotmail.com
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