#Roman Antiquities museum near you so. scurry in there and take notes to look up figures or gods/goddesses you feel interested in.

[meirimerens]

hello Meiri! I'm currently reading through your last Pathologic fic and I'm absolutely in love with it. One thing that sticked out to me, though, (in this fic and others you've written) was the many references to mythology/different myths, which is a topic I'm very interested in but in which I have almost no knowledge. So I thought I'd ask: Do you have any particular recommendations of books (or any other media) on the topic? Hope you have a nice day!

hiiiii HAPPY TO HEAR YOU'RE ENJOYING IT SO FAR and i'm going to keep it 100 You gotta read the Iliad & the Odyssey. if you want to approach greek myths (which is the canon i put the most in my writing) you gotta do it. when i was barely learning to read age 4 my dad would read me the Iliad & the Odyssey so i very much come from a background of I Knew This Already and didn't have to get into it as an adult but this was the entry point for me. helped by the fact that i was 4. this was My entrypoint to greek mythology age 4 and i consider it pretty essential reading if you want to get into that. also obviously Ovid's 25 Metamorphoses. it's a pretty short read (middle school mandatory reading here) like book thinner than my pinkie. also keeping it 100 I Read Wikipedia Pages For Fun. i know it's not everyone's cup of tea but that is a real thing. many greek myths have gone through multiple iterations and reading wikipedia pages allow you to see their different iterations and seek them out on your own.

if you're not into reading wiki pages as a hobby and are not particularly interested in checking out the Iliad & the Odyssey right away i recommend Anne Carson's works, especially Eros the Bittersweet (not necessarily Myths-related) & her "An Oresteia", which is a more-modern-minded translations of Agamemnon (by Aeschylus), Elektra (by Sophocles) and Orestes (by Euripides)

here's my reasoning: while EtB does not exclusively relate to greek myths in particular, it is articulate around greek poetry in general and it (in my vision at least) give you a real appreciation for the written greek word; it's like a peek behind the scenes at how Writing A Myth was conceptualized, even if its main subject is Eros [the bittersweet] & while you're also "better off" reading the original plays of Agamemnon, Elektra & Orestes, if you truly have no knowledge of greek tragedies & how they are woven in myths/myths are woven into them, Carson's translation give them a "fresh" "modern" "kick" that makes them way easier to read than older translation and also i think would give one the "taste" for more greek tragedies (fun fact! "House of Atreus! House swollen with blood and soot, with divine rage and spit(e) [...]" is directly inspired by the (Aeschylus) Oresteia: the House of Atreus is the wicked house around which Orestes' story articulates itself...)

this is maybe revealing nothing new of me but i've watched No movies about greek myths and i have read No "modern retellings"/contemporary YA or NA books with or about greek myths or things of the sort. most i'm completely uninterested in frankly.

HOPE THIS HELPS i know it's. pretty dry to tell someone to read the iliad & the odyssey if they want to get into greek myths but like. gotta be done doesn't it. also anne carson's translation work & hopefully it gives you a Taste for the Rest. i really did like my reading of her An Oresteia & it truly did give me the kick i needed to finish this fic lol.