He is quick to identify their faults to comedic effect as well.įry also peppers his descriptions and summations of the scenarios that characters find themselves in with numerous references to pop culture.

Fry is excellent at pointing out these distinctions in their thought processes and giving each character a unique voice. Perseus argues back to other characters with the feisty attitude of a youth of today, for example.Įven though the different characters go on quests, sometimes of which are similar, they go about their journeys in different ways. Fry uses modern dialogue in the stories even if they’re meant to be set so far back in time. He captures the right amount of suspense and heartbreak, such as when Orpheus looks back too soon in a quest to save a loved one. The emphasis to start with is the line of Perseus, as is laid out in the introduction. Though we’ve seen the stories of heroes battling monsters, humans, and tricking gods again and again in texts, television, and film, Fry’s recounting of these tales brings a much-needed new zest and buoyancy to them. The characters that Fry examines in turn are Perseus, Heracles and his 12 labors, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Jason, Atalanta, Oedipus, and Theseus. The important words there are “to a degree” because when humans incurred the wrath of the gods, particularly Zeus or Hera, that still boded an ill turn of events for the hero.

This second installment takes a close look at the humans, the mortals who began to a degree to forge their own destinies. The first installment focused on the drama and the humor involved in the origin stories of the Greek Gods in Olympus. There’s a list of Gods and Mortals in the back, too. There are plenty of helpful footnotes along the way to recap those events. You don’t need to have read Mythos, the first book in Fry’s Greek Mythology series, in order to understand what’s going on in Heroes. The book spans over 400 pages and contains two sections with lovely artwork to accompany the stories. His latest book, Heroes,was released in November by Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Random House in the U.K.

I was pleased as I grew older to find that not only was he a brilliant actor, but he is also a talented podcast host and an author of many books. I’ve enjoyed Stephen Fry’s sense of humor ever since I watched him in programs such as Blackadder and A Bit of Fry and Laurie when I was a kid.

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