There’s none better than Stephen Fry for a retelling of a Greek myth in a relatable and very funny book. You can always count on him for that. Still, one way or another, Homer’s great poems have remained news that stays news given the resurgence of interest in the epic tales with the much anticipated film debut. One of the great virtues of myth is that it is robust and it can be reimagined. The Odyssey gives us Odysseus in one direction and The Wind in the Willows or Watership Down on another.
Stephen Fry’s chatty and urbane, yet slyly erudite prose retelling fits right into this tradition. His Odyssey- which was preceded by Mythos, Heroes and Troy- brings a four book sequence to a satisfying close. Stylistically, Fry eschews epic grandeur for the immediate relatability of modern idiom. The tone is spry rather than stately, and packed with humour. Cassandra wailing fruitlessly in the background all the way from Troy- is largely played for laughs, and when Agamemnon finally makes it home, the King of Men sounds for all the world like a red-trousered bon vivant back from the golf club after dallying a bit too long at the Nineteenth hole. Nor does Fry altogether ignore the story’s pathos and poetry. There is a moving material about the easy love between father and sons- Odysseus is pissed at missing out on Telemachus’s childhood.
It’s not quite a children’s history book. The language gets fruity here and there- when Odysseus reveals himself to the suitors, he sounds positively Tarantino-esque, and the sexual violence is, if downplayed, not entirely absent.
There’s a lot of action in the footnotes where Fry discusses lexicology or pronunciation, digressing on modern parallels, editorialises, or floats pet theories. He notes that Odysseus’s arrival on the Phaeacian coastline on a plank of his shattered raft may be “ the first ever description of surfing in literature”. He muses on why Hera is always “cow-eyed” and argues that the Floppy Bunniea and the name of the Island of Cos, is probably where the lotus-eaters are actually munching lettuce.
This is a book with a theory that completes a historic arc that has taken us from gods and titans through demigod heroes, to the deeds of mortals whose affairs the gods freely meddle with. The prescriptive encounters with one-eyed giants, six-headed monsters, terrible storms a la an enraged Poseidon, titanic whirlpools, hypnotic sirens, seductive witches and jealous goddesses, unsurprisingly for a man claiming fidelity to his wife, Odysseus is tempted and tormented beyond any man’s endurance.
We also pivot to the story which is all about those that were left aside after the end of the war including stars like, Diomedes Agamemnon and Menelaus… and as it so happened, a survivor on the Trojan side….Aeneas.
Fry is a synthesiser and remixer of Greek myths and stories. He takes from every source he can find and puts his own spin or telling. You may know this story even if you hadn’t read The Odyssey. Certainly some of Odysseus’ story has permeated popular culture .
So what place is there for Stephen Fry’s work? It’s clearly a passion project of his. Soup to nuts, Fry is not competing with other authors, he is more into the dialogue and presenting himself in the mood of a modern author, taking on the myths and stories with every now and then, throwing in a bit of modernism in the dialogue, here and there. I find Fry to be magical and mesmerising, always. It’s wonderful to read up on the Greek tale before the film event, but make sure you read it in its present context.
