Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)

by Stephen Fry

Oh, those gods and their quick tongues. Oh, those mortals and their foolish dreams. Will either ever learn?

Perhaps narcissism is best defined as a need to look on other people as mirrored surfaces who satisfy us only when they reflect back a loving or admiring image of ourselves.

When we look into another’s eyes, in other words, we are not looking to see who they are, but how we are reflected in their eyes.

the individual, having acquired the habit of viewing his life as a whole, increasingly sacrifices his present to his future.

With Elpis locked away, in other words, we are, like Epimetheus, capable of living from day to day, blithely ignorant of, or at least ignoring, the shadow of pain, death, and ultimate failure that looms over us all. Such an interpretation of the myth is, in a dark manner, optimistic.

This makes much more sense to me, as I see hope rather than doom as more innate trait to humanity. Ironically, the fact that I hold this belief proves my point.

With hope, Nietzsche argued, we are foolish enough to believe there is a point to existence, an end and a promise. Without it we can at least try to get on and live free of delusional aspiration.

It must be exhausting to live with this level of nihilism

Hopefully, or hopelessly, we can decide for ourselves.

My absolute favorite quote from this book.

Gods of this kind are created in our image, not the other way round.

So while they may have been far from perfect, the ancient Greeks seem to have developed the art of seeing life, the world, and themselves with greater candor and unclouded clarity than is managed by most civilizations, including perhaps our own.