Update and Book Group report

Firstly a quick update on the knee situation: I had a guided steroid injection last week, but first the doctor took nearly 100ml of murky liquid out of the joint which relieved all the pressure on the tendons at the back of my knee. Now the steroids are kicking in, my knee is back to normal – ie slightly arthriticky and stiff in the mornings but not yet too painful for a replacement op. I was so relieved that I could ditch my stick!

‘N’ is for Narcissus – from Mythos by Stephen Fry

We’re working our way through our flora and fauna alphabet! It’s been more fauna than flora, so we snuck a flower in this month via the back door. The plan was to read the bit about the Narcissus myth, then as much of Fry’s epic history of the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses as we had time for. Most of us managed at least half the book; I read about 220 pages, but will dip into the rest whenever I need to . Some listened on audio, read by Fry, and loved having him narrate to them, however, his voice leaps off the page too as his writing style in this book is like one big conversational aside.

Once we got beyond the more boring part of the world’s creation according to the Ancient Greeks, featuring Chaos, Gaia and Ouranos etc and the second order of gods and godesses including Kronos and the Titans are introduced, Fry really hits his stride and the reader, although you may at first need to get your head around the sheer volume of names that get introduced, quickly gets absorbed into the eternal stories of the squabbling dieties!

Fry is good on etymology, explaining where many of our modern words come from, like ‘echolalia’ in the Narcissus and Echo story. He is also very good at building in references to modern culture to describe the deities’ personalities – although I think he got a little too listy in this portrait of Kronos…

He was darkly handsome, certainly; and yes, he was moody. Had Kronos had examples to go by, he would perhaps have identified with Hamlet at his most introspective, or Jaques at his most self-indulgently morbid. Konstantin from The Seagull with a suggestion of Morrissey. Yet there was something of a Macbeth in him too and more than a little Hannibal Lecter – as we shall see.

As to favourite gods or goddesses, most of our group favoured Hera – who was treated appallingly by Zeus, but meted out terrible punishments herself. Persephone’s story is another favourite, and Hestia, who gives up her throne to Hermes to be with the people whose hearths she is goddess of, is the opposite of the selfish others. I very much enjoyed getting reacquainted with Athena, who springs, fully formed and armored, from Zeus’s head! I learned many details that had previously passed me by too – like the embryo Dionysus being born from Zeus’ thigh, where he’d been implanted from his mortal mother to prevent Hera’s wrath reaching him.

At the end of the book, Fry comments on sources, ancient and modern, and saying and writing all these names, concluding on pronunciation, ‘Anyone who tells you that there is a definitive right or wrong can be doubted, in my opinion.’ Two sections of colour plates featuring art and sculpture, ancient and modern round things off nicely too. If you need to dip into the book to find a particular bit of myth, the index is a good one. I very much enjoyed the half I read, even the Morissey inclusion above! I will keep it and his companion volume, Heroes, on my shelves for further dipping into.

Next month: ‘O’ is for – Oleander Jacaranda by Penelope Lively.

Source: Own copy. Penguin paperback, 442 pages incl index, plus plates. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK P&P)