The appeal of ancient stories

A monthly column on backlisted books that have much to offer in contemporary times In the hands of great raconteurs like Stephen Fry, the retelling of classical stories turns into a form of its own

- Somak Ghoshal

Retelling myths and epics for contemporary readers is one of the easiest and, if you are lucky, most lucrative routes to a writing career. The stories remain omnipotent, thousands of years after their origins, always ready to be adapted into new-age fantasies or revisited from fresh perspectives. Think of the proliferation of titles inspired by the Hindu pantheon that overrun Indian bookstores, or the ever-expanding universe of genre fiction, anime, comic books and graphic novels drawing on the vast constellation of Norse, Viking and Anglo-Saxon legends and folklore.

In the hands of great raconteurs, the retelling of classical stories turns into a form of its own, as is evident from Odyssey, the final volume of Stephen Fry's four-book series on Greek legends, which came out recently.

To be fair, the title is a bit misleading. The book isn't a full, or even a faithful, account of Homer's great epic. While the years-long homecoming journey of the eponymous hero of the Trojan War is central to Fry's design, other tales of return—not necessarily with happy endings—flow into the narrative like tributaries into a sea of stories. From Agamemnon's murder by his aggrieved queen Clytemnestra, to Menelaus and Helen's arduous journey back to Sparta, to Aeneas' abandonment of Dido to found his own kingdom—the idea of homecoming isn't just laced with nostalgia in this version.

Fry takes some questionable liberties with characterization as well. As Odysseus reclaims his kingdom from the suitors hankering after Penelope's hand, his son Telemachus is overjoyed to have his parents reunited. Unlike the original ending, he doesn't sully his princely reputation by hanging the 12 enslaved women who had been defiled by the uncouth hangers-on at the court. Margaret Atwood's