More Than a Myth

Hi, again,

As a reader, what do you think of when you hear the words myth and book in the same sentence? Is it Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief? . Or maybe one of Mary Renault’s classics like The Bull from the Sea —a story that’s much more than Theseus, the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, and a ball of twine.

For me it’s Edith Hamilton’s definitive classic, Mythology . (I keep a copy next to my computer, along with a decent dictionary and a well-thumbed thesaurus. I’ll tell you why in a minute.)

Ms. Hamilton’s reference book was my first exposure to mythology. Back in the 1960s and the days of Camelot and President Kennedy, we had mythology tests every week in English. I hate to admit this, but I failed almost all of them. Was it Theseus or Perseus who fought the Minotaur? Did Medea kill her children or was it Medusa? See what I mean? I just couldn’t figure out all those same sounding names.

As I grew older, and hopefully wiser, I discovered many successful writers based their stories on myths, legends, and fables. These ready-made tales added depth to the characters, subtext to the plots, and a richness to the story as a whole.

Here are some examples from my own writing.


I. Myths as Motifs and Symbols

One of my early flash fictions, “Slender Thread,” is a story about a convict escaping Alcatraz in a fateful attempt to reunite with his lover. The story, republished in the new Central Coast anthology, The Best of SLO NightWriters in the Tolosa Press, http://slonightwriters.org/page-1862000, features a celestial string—symbolic of Ariadne’s thread that led Theseus safely out of the Labyrinth after killing the Minotaur.


I. Myths for Backstory

In Too Long Among the Dead, a paranormal gay romance, I named one of my six female characters Meeda—an anagram of Medea. Meeda was a woman who was previously confined to a psychiatric facility for killing her infant. Myths can add that extra something that resonates with readers.

II. Myths for Plot

I recently finished a new book, Getting Gertie Out, a story about LGBT abuse in a rest home. (The e book, published by JMS Books, http://www.jms-books.com, will have a November release.)

For this book, I based the main character on the myth of Atalanta—an infant, abandoned at birth and raised by a female bear, who became a fierce warrior. Getting Gertie Out is the story of Lanta Cross, an adopted sixteen-year-old and her mother, Bernadette, and their fight for justice for their elderly friend, Gertrude Weiss.

Q: As a reader, what are your favorite myth-based books and why?

As a writer, have you used myths to enrich your work?

Until next week then,

The best is yet to come.

Paul