Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths

Greek and Roman mythology is notoriously labyrinthine. Ancient poetic and dramatic competitions allowed and perhaps encouraged poets to offer new twists on familiar myths, resulting in variants that introduce new connections and expand family trees. Whether in old or new versions, myths are inextricably interwoven in a large story web. The story of Zeus inevitably includes the stories of other gods. Heroes, too, are connected by families, experiences, and their relationships with the gods. These interconnected stories provide a kind of cultural family tree for the disparate communities that made up the ancient Greek world. Political systems did not unite them; storytelling did.

This motif appears in Evslin’s references to characters and events whose stories are alluded to but not told in full. For example, Perseus “loved to hear his mother tell stories […] of gods, of heroes, of monsters, of battles, of transformations, and of strange loves” (120). In other words, Perseus enjoys the same kind of stories that Evslin narrates for his audience. Other instances of the motif include Orpheus’s musical stories, which cause his listeners to recall their own childhoods, and the moment when Perseus cuts off Medusa’s head and the warrior Chrysaor and winged horse Pegasus leap out from her neck. Evslin does not elaborate on their stories but leaves the reference hanging for readers who may encounter these figures treated more in depth in other myth collections.

The storytelling motif also manifests in the connections Evslin makes between myths and elements in the modern world, whether types of flowers, birds, or physical phenomena, from earthquakes to echoes. He continually reminds readers that stories are the way humans have made sense of our world, and that we continue to make sense of it through stories in the present.