Here are 100 books that Aphrodite's Breath fans have personally recommended if you like
Aphrodite's Breath.
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I am an American citizen who taught Classical Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. I have taught Homer (in translation and in Greek), ancient myth, and “reception” of ancient myth. All the books that I discuss below I have taught many times in a first-year seminar about creative “reception” of the Odyssey. Other topics include comparable stories (like The Tempest by Shakespeare) and other great works of reception (like Derek Walcott’s stage version of the Odyssey and his epic poem "Omeros"). Every time I’ve taught the class, I’ve learned the most from free-wheeling discussions with students.
I was astonished that Mason invented forty-four short versions of Odysseus’ story, under the clever pretense that these were found on an ancient manuscript.
Since I like sci-fi and supernatural books, I thoroughly enjoyed the creative and original nature of these stories. Besides being fun, they also made me re-think the original Homeric tale that this work sort of puts into a blender.
After ten years' journeying Odysseus returns, again and again, to Ithaca. Each time he finds something different: his patient wife Penelope has betrayed him and married; his arrival accelerates time and he watches his family age and die in front of him; he walks into an empty house in ruins; he returns but is so bored he sets sail again to repeat his voyage; he comes back to find Penelope is dead.
In these forty-four retellings of passages from Homer's Odyssey, Zachary Mason uses Homer's linear narrative and explodes it: presenting alternative and contradictory fragments of familiar stories - the…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I am an American citizen who taught Classical Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. I have taught Homer (in translation and in Greek), ancient myth, and “reception” of ancient myth. All the books that I discuss below I have taught many times in a first-year seminar about creative “reception” of the Odyssey. Other topics include comparable stories (like The Tempest by Shakespeare) and other great works of reception (like Derek Walcott’s stage version of the Odyssey and his epic poem "Omeros"). Every time I’ve taught the class, I’ve learned the most from free-wheeling discussions with students.
The esteemed author Toni Morrison creates a fascinating modern “reception” of the Odyssey.
On the surface level, it is the story of an African American veteran of the Korean War returning to Georgia.
I appreciated the sensitive and sympathetic description of the veteran’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It was also fascinating to perceive how the soldier’s return reflects relationships in Odysseus’ wanderings. I found the returning soldier’s rescue of his younger sister (the Penelope figure) from a racist doctor dramatic and riveting.
This short novel is engrossing as a story and well addresses psychological trauma and historical racism. Happily, the ending is positive and affirmative about achieving happiness through belonging to family, friends, and a place.
Besides cleverly re-imagining the story of the Odyssey, the novel creates a fascinating modern story.
A stirring exploration of war, race and belonging from the Nobel-prize winning author of Beloved.
An angry and self-loathing veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. As Frank revisits the memories from childhood and the war that leave him questioning his shattered sense of self, he unearths the courage he thought he'd lost forever. It is with incantatory power that Morrison's language reveals an apparently defeated man finding his manhood - and, finally, his home.
I am an American citizen who taught Classical Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. I have taught Homer (in translation and in Greek), ancient myth, and “reception” of ancient myth. All the books that I discuss below I have taught many times in a first-year seminar about creative “reception” of the Odyssey. Other topics include comparable stories (like The Tempest by Shakespeare) and other great works of reception (like Derek Walcott’s stage version of the Odyssey and his epic poem "Omeros"). Every time I’ve taught the class, I’ve learned the most from free-wheeling discussions with students.
It is always delightful to read this re-telling of the Odyssey by the esteemed Canadian author Margaret Atwood.
I found the voice of Penelope as the narrator of her own story most effective. The set-up of Penelope as a shade in the underworld who dishes the dirt on what really happened when Odysseus returned home seemed very clever to me. Penelope is witty and humorous in her sceptical, if fond, description of her hero’s antics, but I also appreciated that the queen continues to wrestle with guilt over the murder of several of her handmaids.
Penelope. Immortalised in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband's return.
Now Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story - a tale of lust, greed and murder.
The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, David Grossman, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and…
A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.
The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…
I have a passion for the topic because it’s so unlimited. We’re all called to destiny inner/outer in so many ways. We see a lot of stories about those calls being massive adventures with global impact—but sometimes the small stories, those inner calls with inner love answers are just as epic, just as magnificent. Love of family, community, country, lovers, nature… truly, it can be anything. These are just a few books off the older shelves to illustrate the many ways love answers the call. My challenge is to go back and re-read them with this list in mind. Re-visit books from a decade ago, reframe the story with love.
This is an obvious pick, I know. Still, it’s on record as the greatest adventure, the highest bar of duty and courage—and ultimately love.
Homer’s epic detailing Odysseus’ journey home from the Trojan War is fraught with peril and obstacles that would have made a lesser human give up and call it a day.
Destiny called him away, but it was love that brought him home from war. At each crossroad Odysseus was offered an alternative, he chose to return to his wife, his son, and his land. He could have been made immortal.
He was offered riches and greater glory, and all the dude wanted was to kiss his wife and sleep in his own bed at the end of the day. Is that so much to ask?
The reason The Odyssey is on my list is to reflect the scale of destiny, and the answering and equal call…
Homer's great epic, The Odyssey, is perhaps Western literature's first adventure story, and certainly remains one of its finest. It describes King Odysseus of Ithaca's epic, ten-year quest to return home after the Trojan War. He encounters giants, sorceresses, sea-monsters and sirens, while his wife Penelope is forced to resist the suitors who besiege her on Ithaca. Both an enchanting fairy tale and a gripping drama, The Odyssey is immensely influential, not least for its rich complexity and the magnetism of its hero.
This Macmillan Collector's Library edition uses a translation by T. E. Lawrence, now remembered as 'Lawrence of…
Moral injury, post-traumatic stress, and the dark night of the soul are human conditions I understand well. See, over the course of a lengthy military career, I deployed overseas many times, including to Afghanistan. In my last two deployments, I served as the legal advisor to a joint special operations task force. In this role, I advised on more than 500 “strikes”: air attacks intended to kill humans. When I returned from Afghanistan in 2018, I noticed a change in me, and I’ve been living with moral injury and post-traumatic stress since. This list helped me, particularly with the lesser-known “moral injury,” and I sincerely hope it helps you too.
Few today know of moral injury, and I found this book to be a great introduction to the condition. The heart of it concerns betrayal—by those above and even ourselves.
Often seen as the father of “moral injury,” Jonathan Shay reveals that the condition itself actually stretches deep into the bowels of history, at least as far as Shakespeare, if not the Homeric epics written 2,400 years earlier: a reminder that everything old is new again.
Rather than acting as ventriloquist, Shay quotes his patients, allowing the veterans to speak for themselves; to express their traumas and the consequences thereof. And he emphasizes, as few do, the responsibility of society to aid in healing those traumas.
An accessible, practical read for understanding moral injury, trauma, and our communal responsibilities.
In this ambitious follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life.
Seamlessly combining important psychological work and brilliant literary interpretation with an impassioned plea to renovate American military institutions, Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran's experience and one of the world's greatest classics.
In Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay used the story of the Iliad as a prism through which to examine how ancient and modern wars have battered the psychology…
Journeys of discovery are my favorite kind of story and my favorite vehicle for (mental) travel. From Gilgamesh to last week’s bestseller, they embody how we live and learn: we go somewhere, and something happens. We come home changed and tell the tale. The tales I love most take me where the learning is richest, perhaps to distant, exotic places—like Darwin’s Galapagos—perhaps deep into the interior of a completely original mind—like Henry Thoreau’s. I cannot live without such books. Amid the heartbreak of war, greed, disease, and all the rest, they remind me in a most essential way of humanity’s redemptive capacity for understanding and wonder.
Once, on a weeks-long gig far from home, I stayed in a bare attic room with no TV, no internet, not even a radio. I didn’t mind. I had this translation of the Odyssey to settle down with every evening after work. I would think about it all day long: the vivid language, the fantastical events, the struggle and suffering of the protagonist. Reading it was like going to a technicolor movie every night, except that the movie was inside my head.
Talk about an essential human story—the Odyssey is four thousand years old, but its characters have the same emotions, fears, vices, and virtues we have today. Their struggles make my heart race and my eyes tear up. My imagination goes into overdrive, and I revel in the wonder.
Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem, recounting the great wandering of Odysseus during his ten-year voyage back home to Ithaca, after the Trojan War. A superb new verse translation, now published in trade paperback, before the standard Penguin Classic B format.
A wind sorcerer. A dark spirit. An unsolved murder.
On the haunted Draakensky Windmill Estate, sketch artist Charlotte Knight arrives to live on the property, hired to illustrate the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke—a bright and lucrative opportunity to boost her struggling art career.
I have always been fascinated with various myths, folklore, legends, and history. And I’ve always liked sharp humor and witty punchlines. Considering I have read all the Slavic fairy tales and historical books, I thought that presenting the rich and extensive history of that region through the eyes of a baker is the natural thing to do. So I tried to retell the rich folklore of the Slavic realm as an absurd baking journey through magic, empire-building, and baking the perfect loaf. It does add spice and flavor to the otherwise violent history of the region. Folklore and history should be fun and entertaining to read, not dry and academically challenging.
This is the last of the 4 books that Stephen Fry wrote about the Greek myths, and probably the best of the series. I devoured the book!
If you love history (folktale) and humor, look no further than this book; it has plenty of both! It is also the one that gave me the inspiration to write my take on history and folktales from an absurd and funny perspective.
I absolutely loved this book: being well familiar with the classic tale of The Odyssey, reading modern versions of the story, and having seen at least 3 different movies, I have to say this is the best version! I can only wish that somebody makes it into a movie!
WHEN GODS TURN VENGEFUL, ONLY THE BRAVE CAN DEFY FATE AND FIND THEIR WAY HOME
Discover Stephen Fry's epic re-telling of the Odyssey for the 21st century
'Relatable and full of humour ' GUARDIAN
'Fry breathes contemporary relevance into these ancient tales' OBSERVER
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After the fall of Troy, wily Odysseus, King of Ithaca, sails for home and his steadfast queen Penelope.
However, the angry gods curse him to wander the seas for ten long years. Tormented by giants and monsters, tempted by witches and goddesses, Odysseus battles to draw ever closer to home.
I don't write within received categories: our lives aren't lived in categories, but are full of varying realities, whether of home, childhood, marriage, parenthood, fantasy, dream, work, or relaxation, and more all mixed together. I can't write in any other way, however dominant a particular strand or age may be on the surface in a given work.Orpheus Rising may have a child hero, and a fantastic, elegant Edwardian Elephant as a spirit guide, but it let me tell a story of love lost and regained, of family broken and remade, of a father in despair and remade, themes of real importance in any life.
This is my favorite novelin Rieu's prose translation which has a real freshness, as if the very first book. I wanted that sense of freshness for my book, as well as the story of a man desperately trying to get home to his wife. The story takes place in the framework of Sam's 11-year-old imagination, and so carries him and his father through fantastic adventures as trying as those Odysseus faces in The Odyssey.
'The Odyssey is a poem of extraordinary pleasures: it is a salt-caked, storm-tossed, wine-dark treasury of tales, of many twists and turns, like life itself' Guardian
The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - ship-wrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his bravery and cunning to reach his homeland and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him. E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey was the very…
I have been writing poetry for 60 years, often basing my poems on Greek myths and Hebrew stories. I have won various prizes for my work and now sit on the Advisory Board of The Society of Classical Poets in New York. In addition, I am a regular feature writer on culture, classics, and poetry for The Epoch Times. Thus, I live and breathe myth, epic, and poetry! Also, I have a First Class honors degree (aka: Summa Cum Laude) in English Literature alongside two post-graduate degrees, one with Distinction.
This book is really the definitive replacement to Robert Graves’ awesome The Greek Myths, which held sway for 50 years or so as the go-to book for detailed explanation alongside obscure erudition.
The good thing is, March’s book, whilst amazingly erudite and ‘complete’ (if one can ever be), is also highly readable and organized in a much superior and reader-friendly way than the Graves’ volumes. I like reference books, and this is my default classical reference book now.
What were the twelve labours of Herakles? Why did Zeus turn himself into a shower of gold? What was the name of the guard-dog of the Underworld? Which two-faced Roman god gave his name to the month January? What is the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx?
The myths of ancient Greece and Rome are the most dramatic and unforgettable tales of love, war, heroism and betrayal ever told. Whether it's Ikaros flying too close to the sun, Prometheus stealing fire from the gods or the tragedy of Oedipus, their characters have inspired art, literature, plays and films, and…
The epic saga continues. Jarnland is in a frenzy of excitement. After the eccentric demise of Old King Wyllard, his co-Majesty, young Queen Esmeralda, announces a Royal Tournament to celebrate the return of our heroes from their perilous quest. The Main Event will be a duel between the legendary warrior…
I am an avid fantasy reader and writer. I have been writing for many years and love to craft detailed worlds and complex characters that surprise and delight readers. Stories are about challenges, overcoming the barriers that are put in front of us, and growing in the process. Characters do not have to be good or bad; they can be both, a mixture, just like real people. I strive to create characters that make people stop and think, make them question their assumptions, or relate to them in ways that they had not expected. Fantasy is about bringing real emotions to readers through an imaginary setting, and I love it.
Eperitus is not a hero. He is a soldier with a murky past who just wants to serve a noble lord and do better with his life. I love that he always strives to do the right thing, even when he is caught in the center of the great war for Troy.
Eperitus is surrounded by great men, Odysseus, Achilles, and Agamemnon, and yet many turn to him for advice or counsel, and he never once lets himself be overawed or manipulated by those around him. I admire his truth and his steadfast desire to stick to what he believes is right and to fight for those that he believes in.
It's ten years since Odysseus and the warrior, Eperitus, joined the heroes of the age to compete for the hand of Helen of Sparta. Settled in his small island kingdom, Odysseus wants nothing more than to rule Ithaca in peace. Meanwhile Eperitus, frustrated at his quiet life, dreams of glory in battle.
When the lion-motifed sails of Agamemnon appear on the horizon, Odysseus knows that the time for peace is over and a time of war is beginning. Helen of Sparta has been abducted by a prince of Troy and the hosts of ancient Greece are gathering.
