Author Madeline Miller Picks Her Favourite Greek Myths

Hello Avid Readers,

I haven’t re-blogged one of these interview for ages and I thought it was high time I shared another one with you. I do enjoy stories based around the ancient myths, especially those who set their re-working in our modern times.

Reading this interview has definitely piqued my interest and put Madeline Miller on my radar. Have you read either of Madeline’s books or any of the five books that she mentions? As always, I’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy this interview.

 

Originally posted by Goodreads on 26th March 2018

When author Madeline Miller was a child, her mother read her Homer‘s The Iliad and The Odyssey as bedtime stories, sparking a lifelong fascination with Greek mythology’s gods and monsters. In school, Miller studied Greek and Latin, earning her B.A. and M.A. in Classics, and in 2012 she published her first novel, the Orange Prize-winning The Song of Achilles.

Despite her love of the classics, she says she was bothered that the female characters in the tales seemed sidelined to the role of either the murderous villain or tragic pawn. So in her second novel, Circe, Miller set out to create a new and nuanced voice for Homer’s powerful goddess who turned Odysseus’ men into pigs. As an expert and fan of Greek mythology, Miller recommends five more novels rooted in these ancient stories.

“From Percy Jackson to The Penelopiad, from House of Names to Harry Potter, Greek myths keep popping up everywhere. But this is nothing new: These powerful and passionate stories have been captivating readers for going on three millennia now. Here are five books rooted in Greek myths that knocked my socks off.”