Greek mythology has been one of my hyperfixations since I was around nine years old, when I read the Goddess Girls saga by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams. The stories fascinated me, and as I grew older my love for mythology didn’t stop, it transformed and grew with me. After that came Percy Jackson, The Song of Achilles, Circe, The Odyssey (and Epic the Musical!), and many other pieces of literature, film, art, and music influenced by the mythos. That’s why when I learned there was going to be a panel where expert authors discussed Greek mythology and retellings at the Young Adult Literature Convention, I knew I had to attend and soak in as much information from it as I could.
The authors in attendance were Adrienne Young, Bea Fitzgerald, Bryony Pearce, Coco Omer, and Nikita Gill, each focusing on a different myth that they themselves had retold in their books. Each author’s retelling was from a feminist point of view, giving voices to the characters, empowering them in ways that are not often considered as mythology is often patriarchal in narrative. But what defines a goddess after all? I will develop some of the most interesting points around goddesses they made in the talk:
- The idea of curiosity has been erroneously seen as bad for a long time. Pandora’s jar (fun fact: it’s actually not a box!) is the prime example of that. If you are curious, there will be consequences. That’s wrong! Like Danielle LaPorte said, “if knowledge is power, then curiosity is the muscle”. In Bea Fitzgerald’s new book, ‘A Beautiful Evil’, she retells the story of Pandora through a new lens. The book includes neurodivergent representation and gives the myth a fresh outlook on the true power of curiosity.
- In the book ‘Fallen City’ by Adrienne Young, the characters choose their own destiny, they don’t let the gods choose for them. Throughout all Greek mythology myths and retellings, gods are almighty and often have a strong effect on the outcomes of human lives, and the classic conflict between humans’ will and the gods’ will often lead to wrong choices.
- Nikita Gill reimagined the story of Hekate, the goddess of witchcraft, magic, crossroads, and necromancy by focusing on the stages of feminine rage. Throughout history, she has gotten an especially bad reputation, when all the gods are bad in different ways and yet they don’t all get the same hate. In this book, she gets to control the narrative.
- Aphrodite is given a new voice in Bryony Pearce’s book of the same title. She is more than the goddess of love and beauty, but she uses her title as an advantage. “She learns that it is a curse to be seen as nothing but beautiful – but it may also be her strongest weapon.” (Waterstones).
It was empowering attending this talk, and it made my love for Greek mythology grow even more
– Luciana Medrano