novels on greek mythology

blackpen · Jan 8, 2007

i write on greek mythology and i'm a little concerned about the fact that there seems to be very few novels that are retellings of one specific greek myth. is this because no one writes such books or are they so unmarketable that they no agent wants to represent them? who else out there writes greek mythology?

also, if i get a short story published and decide to turn it into a novel later, will that hurt my chances of getting that novel published, since i'm presuming that the first rights have already been sold?

Alex Bravo · Jan 8, 2007

The Lightning Thief is a young adult book about greek mythology, or bringing it into the 21st century... Very innovative in what Rick did.

My son loved it, and it got him reading more about greek mythology. He talked me into reading it and I enjoyed the book too. We're waiting on the third book...

blackpen · Jan 8, 2007

thanks for the post but i meant novels for adults. i found like 2 and they're both romance. mine really can't be called a romance

waylander · Jan 8, 2007

There's the Troy series by the late David Gemmell, the first book was called 'Lord of the Silver Bow'

JanDarby · Jan 8, 2007

Did you find Roberta Gellis's books? Since they're romance, they might have been the two you mentioned.

What's the genre you're writing in? Would these books be listed as historical or mystery or fantasy or what? That might be the key to making these books work.

Think about why the story needs to be retold, given that everyone knows what happened and how it ends. Find the twist that makes your story different from what we think we know about the myth. For instance, maybe Jason wasn't the fearless leader who went after the fleece, but he had to go because ... oh, I don't know, but the story isn't "about Greek mythology," it's about this guy who has this conflict and resolves it by doing such-and-such. If you view it that way, you'll probably find more comparable books than if you just view it as books featuring mythological characters. And you could pitch it that way, too -- "it's a book about a guy who flies too high and gets burned and falls to earth, and, oh, yeah, it's based on the mythological story, but with the twist that in the course of falling he invents quantum physics."

JD

blackpen · Jan 8, 2007

thanks for your responses everyone. i feel a lot more encouraged. jan, my story is a historicized version of hades and persephone but romance is not the main feature of the story, nor is kidnap. it's more of an epic adventure/political thriller and the plot is very different from the myth as it is told. what i try to do is tell the true story as it actually happened in history (although the greek gods are very real) and show how homer and the ancient writers could have gotten the story wrong while he was writing his poems. when the novel is finally finished, i'll take your advice and try to pitch it as a genre of it's own rather than a rehash of greek mythology.

novels on greek mythology

blackpen

Bizzare in Berkeley

Alex Bravo

blackpen

Bizzare in Berkeley

waylander

Who's going for a beer?

JanDarby

blackpen

Bizzare in Berkeley