Are you bored and in the need of something new, or in this case old, to keep you entertained for hours? Then welcome Greek Mythology into your life! When you think of Greek Mythology you might think of school or long, weird stories with hard to pronounce names but Greek Mythology doesn’t have to be boring. It’s even fun with strong lessons that make it educational. There’s many different media that include or are based upon Greek Myths. Even some kid shows have hints to Greek Mythology like Phineas and Ferb season 4 episode 14 “Troy Story” where the kids reenact the Trojan war with their own fun twist included. Kid shows, books, musicals and games have included or are based on Greek mythology.
Why Should You Care?
Like I mentioned, Greek Mythology just seems like something to learn about in school. It’s boring and unnecessary to learn. I used to agree with these thoughts at one point in time.. Then one day I stumbled across EPIC: The Musical. This opened my mind to reading Percy Jackson because I was slowly getting interested in the myths. I was now reading more books everyday, which led to me doing better in my reading MAP scores in middle school. The fact I was reading more allowed me to read faster than I could before getting into this rabbit hole. It was during this time that I had my high school placement exam that determined where I would be placed academically depending how well I did. There was a time limit for every part of the exam. When it came to the 2 reading parts, I was finished way before the timer went off . This allowed me to double check my work and lower my stress about the test. This all resulted from just reading a book I was vaguely interested in. This could be your reading level after picking up a book to read every day and chance you get. If you don’t like reading then that’s fine but you will be stuck in your reading level for a while unless you challenge yourself with reading something you might not like. Like they say, “you never know until you try”! You need to find a book that interests you enough to keep reading. That book can be any book from The Hunger Games to Junie B. Jones but I strongly recommend Greek Mythology.
Greek Myths include complicated topics which challenge your skills and morals. Your skills are challenged by reading a higher level book than what you’re currently at. Morals are challenged because you get to think if you agree with the series of events that played out. Do you agree that Demeter was just an angry mother not wanting her daughter to be with the boy she loves or was she a mother rightfully worried for her daughter when she’s with someone who kidnaps her every few months? Greek Myths are very interesting as well even if you think they’re boring. Do you think reading about a play boy getting cursed to fall in love with his reflection in a pool of water is boring? It’s funny hearing it dumbed down but it’s a story of narcissism, unrequited love, and the torture of being silenced. Or maybe you don’t like love stories then maybe you’d prefer to hear about the origin of the saying “fly too close to the sun” where a boy literally flew too close to the sun. There’s a myth for everyone out there, you just need to find it! Because of the fact there’s so many myths, if you start to lose interest you can just move on to another medium of Greek Mythology or more to another Myth! Knowing these myths can be a good first impression towards teachers. It makes you seem smarter if you know some of the subject’s material beforehand. I was talking to my humanities teacher and mentioned some stuff about Greek Mythology. The next day she ended up asking me how to pronounce Demeter’s name, so she might think of me as knowledgeable on these topics. So Greek Mythology can be your new interest that helps you with your reading levels in school, it gives you a good impression on teachers, and it’s a topic you almost can’t ever get bored of!
Books
If you’d like a more modern twist to myths or like a long book series so you’re interested for a long time then getting into the Percy Jackson books written by Rick Riordan is definitely for you. But if you prefer to read and learn from the actual texts by Homer and others then you could go off into your own journey of finding myths individually. I recommend starting on the myth of Hades and Persephone as a good starter if you’d prefer to go your own way.
Rick Riordan has written about 60+ books so far and more to come. That might overwhelm you but I will go into his series books rather than individually. He doesn’t write just regular old books, he gives multiple perspectives for every chapter for his series ‘The Heroes of Olympus’. One chapter it’s the main character’s point of view, thoughts, and actions. The next chapter is another group member’s actions, views, and thought process. There are 9 different characters that have their moment to shine every few chapters. You might argue that this isn’t unique but depending on the specific book you get when buying his books, you can get a different sneak peak of his work in progress books at the time. There’s also a few books that contain a whole other series crossover! What about his fan base? His fans are very fun people in my opinion! I’ve brought my books to summer bridge and ended up finding out a lot of people around me have heard of or read a bit of Percy Jackson which was a fun discovery! I then got into a whole argument about the characters with another person. We weren’t genuinely yelling at each other, more like an altercation about opinions on the characters. The fandom will point out very deep meanings that were well hidden by Rick that I never noticed either. I love finding out more that I didn’t know about my favorite books!
Percy Jackson is a 5 book series. The books consist of ‘The Lightning Thief’, ‘The Sea of Monsters’, ‘The Titans Curse’, ‘The Battle of The Labyrinth’, and ‘The Last Olympian’. The main character is Percy Jackson. Percy is a halfblood which is the child of a god/goddess and a human. The Lightning Thief is about Percy finding out he’s a halfblood but it’s not a slice of life type of book. He is framed for stealing the lightning god, Zeus’s lightning bolt. Percy goes on a journey to find the actual thief and retrieve the lightning bolt in order to clear his name. The book might seem boring or the details are too much but trust me, the plot points and the writing at those plot points are extremely interesting. There are plot twists that are cleverly well hidden and character backstories allow you to wonder if you agree with the villain which helps you remember that some heroes and villains have the same opinions or goals, but whose is the right one. Once you start you just can’t stop, with all the cliff hangers and the literal falling off of cliffs, you just have to keep reading on! These books do touch on the wrong ways to grief, jealousy, feeling left out, and the pressure of coming to an important decision. This gives you exposure to what’s right and what’s wrong through the eyes of a fictional character rather than finding out the hard way. One unique thing about Percy Jackson is almost all half-bloods have some sort of ADHD or dyslexia so there is awareness of those topics! It’s not stereotypical ADHD where the kid is scatterbrained and dumb all the time. These kids aren’t dumb which can be assumed having these conditions. Percy Jackson goes into these subjects very well. Annabeth Chase is a highly intelligent girl and she has these conditions as well that can sometimes slow her down but she never lets it stop her. Percy isn’t seen as a dumb person, just as someone who gets into fights and needs a little help because of his attention disorder. It even shows how over time you can learn to control or tone down the need to get distracted as a person with ADHD.
As soon as you finish these 5 books you go on to the next series which is the Heroes of Olympus.
Heroes of Olympus starts off with a new set of heroes which are Jason, Piper, and Leo. Just because the first book doesn’t have Percy as the main character doesn’t mean it’s bad. Many think it won’t be as good because of the fact it’s mostly narrated by Jason so they skip this series but that’s completely false. The Heroes of Olympus series has got to be my 2nd favorite of these series I’ve read so far. This series includes amnesia, divine intervention, relationship troubles, and a metal dragon! There are 5 books in this as well! Those include ‘The Lost Hero’, ‘The Son of Neptune ‘, ‘The Mark of Athena’, ‘The House of Hades’, and ‘The Blood of Olympus’. ‘The Lost Hero’ is about a boy named Jason waking up on a bus next to his supposed girlfriend Piper and his “best friend” Leo. He has no memory of these people, the bus, or who he even is. These 3 go on a journey to complete their half of a prophecy and hopefully gain Jason’s memories back by the end! These books touch upon the negatives of having a popular actor as a dad, growing up judged for being a different race, and growing up in a different time including problems with self image issues, hard understandings, and the past coming back up. There’s subjects of being judged for your looks, hated for something you had no control over, ironic irrational fears, distant mother roles, grief and perfectionism. These books take these topics in a way that you won’t feel like you’re learning but that you’re having fun reading about your favorite characters.
Taking place months after the events of ‘The Blood of Olympus’ is the Trials of Apollo!
Here’s where the timeline gets a little confusing but I’ll explain it. So The Trials of Apollo do include the next major events after ‘The Blood of Olympus’ but there are some books in between. Percy Jackson: The Senior Year Adventures! This contains ‘The Chalice of The Gods’ and the ‘Wrath of The Triple Goddess’ with a possible 3rd book but its release isn’t confirmed as Rick Riordan is currently busy with other projects. I have just finished reading ‘The Chalice of The Gods’ so I know that at least this book takes place before the first book in the next series because Percy knows some information in The Trials of Apollo that he just barely finds out in ‘The Chalice of The Gods’. As you can guess, this series follows Percy’s senior years where he’s trying to get recommendation letters to get into a good university with Annabeth Chase. Not just any recommendation letters but they have to be from gods and not gods that he’s already helped out. This book does hit topics of aging. From remembering the scared, panic a child felt, to fighting and accepting old age. You’ve heard millions of motivational talks saying ”you will grow old and you have to accept that. You can’t be a child forever”. They never sank in for me and to this day I’m still terrified of the fact I’m growing older. I’m about to be in high school, a place I thought I’d be going years later, not when I’m 14. It is scary but this book did help me a little with the thought that you can’t beat old age, but if you accept the fact that if you’re going to grow old, you might as well hope to grow old with the ones you care about by your side. That can be a thought that gets you through these fears. I swear I was feeling so many feelings reading this, and hopefully this book helps you if you have these thoughts as well.
The Trials of Apollo is what the title states, trials for the God Apollo! Following the events of the Heroes of Olympus, Apollo is sentenced to earth as a human being. Unlike the previous books, Apollo is the only Narrator showing his thoughts and actions. Again this is not a slice of life book. Apollo goes on a journey that will hopefully end with his returning to Godhood with his 12 year old master, Meg McCaffrey tagging along. This yet again is a 5 book series! With book titles like; ‘The Hidden Oracle’, ‘The Dark Prophecy’, ‘The Burning Maze’, ‘The Tyrant’s Tomb’, and ending with ‘The Tower of Nero’. There are many guest appearances of the characters in the previous books but for the better or worse? This series is my absolute all time favorite of the Riordan-verse. The funny commentary of Apollo accompanying the devastating myths including Apollo makes this the best of the trilogy in my opinion. It doesn’t flat out mention this but this is my take away comparing the first book and the last. Apollo gained a ton of humanity as a god. He learned to appreciate things more, be more kind, understand grief rather than think it’s just some mortal feelings, and he pays more attention to his kids. It teaches us not only that you can change no matter how set you are with your opinions, but that change isn’t an obvious thing. Yes, the change with Apollo’s thoughts and feelings towards things is pointed out by many others at the end so even the people around him noticed but it doesn’t feel the same when you’re reading his thoughts. You can only barely see the slow hill going from a confident, handsome God to a human teen boy who can’t catch a break.
Other Titles
There are more series to continue on from the Trials of Apollo but the next 2 books to follow aren’t a part of a series. The next 2 books are ‘The Sun and The Star’ and ‘The Court of The Dead’. ‘The Court of The Dead’ is not published at the time of writing this, it comes out September 23, 2025. This follows ‘The Trials of Apollo’ because the events going to be the main focus of ‘The Sun and The Star’ is implied and then fully set up. Since it’s mentioned in the previous series I won’t elaborate on it especially since I haven’t gotten this far because I’m waiting for ‘The Court of The Dead’s’ release first so I can read them back to back. I’d rather have both of the books now than read one and have to stay on a cliff hanger until months later. But if you’re not like me and want to get back into another series right away then the 2 next series are the Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase! These won’t get their own sections because they aren’t Greek Mythology. Really, you can read these at whatever point but it’s recommended to read Magnus chase after The Heroes of Olympus and the Kane Chronicles before Heroes of Olympus. Kane Chronicles is Egyptian Mythology following the Kane siblings, Sadie Kane and Carter Kane! Magnus Chase is Norse Mythology and I actually don’t know much about this series. I don’t research in hopes I don’t get spoilers because trust me I would’ve loved the surprises that awaited for me if I didn’t stumble across the spoilers of The Trials of Apollo on a random day.
There are many in between series like some books explaining more in detail about Camp-Half Blood and Camp Jupiter! Read the Heroes of Olympus series to understand what Camp Jupiter is. There’s books where it includes even more adventures Percy has gone through. Plus way more but I can’t go into those because the timelines for them aren’t fully recognizable and there’s too many that I don’t even know if I know all the other books. Thankfully they aren’t mainline books they just provide context for somethings mentioned in the books as small comments. The only books I do recommend reading are the crossovers between the Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson! They were very interesting and fun to read even though I haven’t read the Kane Chronicles yet. Those books include ‘The Son of Sobek’, ‘The Staff of Serapis’, and ‘The Crown of Ptolemy’ or you can get all 3 in the 1 book ‘Demigods and Magicians’.
Musicals
Producers Jorge Rivera-Herrans, Rob Rokicki, Anais Mitchell and many others have created musical adaptations of different parts of Greek Mythology.
Jorge Rivera-Herrans created EPIC: The Musical which is his version of the Odyssey written by Homer. The Odyssey follows the King of Ithaca, Odysseus, on his journey home after the Trojan War. You may listen to this on Youtube and Spotify! EPIC is an adaptation because there’s some parts where Jorge took some creative liberty on and changed it up a bit. This includes the fact that Odysseus is a loyal husband to his wife Penelope while the original Odysseus cheated 3 times with 3 different women. Though it has been speculated that Odysseus in fact cheated over 6,000 times. There’s other differences including names, relationships, endings, and storyline but overall this is an engaging way to tell a story. You get to listen along to amazing singers portraying characters that are in the Odyssey using such an attention grabbing way. No voice is the same and every line is delivered with the tension needed for the situation. There’s betrayal, twists, and many hidden meanings or lines that Jorge sneaks in for the fans. Speaking of which, the fanbase is one of few healthy fandoms there is. There is no acted out musical for EPIC but there are commissioned animatics for some parts of each song or just a small art piece to paint the picture. Due to the lack of visuals in the musical, the fan base is filled with full animations for songs. The animators creating these are always so talented and everyone is welcome to make one including the commissioned artists by Jorge. These artists make full versions of the songs as well, not just when requested to but because it’s fun! Everyone just loves finding new connections to songs and foreshadowing moments which allows you to see the amount of effort and care that went into this project. EPIC is a completed musical but Jorge isn’t out for the count yet as he is already creating another musical on Youtube but this one is based on the Iliad also written by Homer. The Iliad follows more of the events of the Trojan war which is what EPIC began with so only time will tell on how many hidden easter eggs to EPIC or the Odyssey Jorge will sneak in, be a part of the process and see for yourself! EPIC was one of my main focuses in Greek Mythology because of how engaging and fun it is to listen to the songs so I really recommend you to try it out!
Rob Rokicki is the creator of the Lightning Thief musical. This musical is based on the book “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan who was previously talked about. The Lightning Thief musical is about the same where a boy named Percy Jackson learns that he is the son of Poseidon. He is accused of stealing Zeus’s lightning bolt. Percy now has to go on a mission to find the true thief as well as the lightning bolt with his new friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. Now I personally have not seen the musical only bits of the shows but I will note that they always seem so talented and funny. It takes the plot line of the book and turns moments into singing opportunities. The musical used to be on Broadway! It opened October 16th, 2019 and closed January 5th 2020. Though the musical started performing off-broadway in 2014. There is no streaming service to watch the musical but you can listen to the songs and watch the musical on youtube!!
Anais Mitchell, producer, song writer, and writer of Hadestown. Hadestown is both a musical and book just like ‘The Lightning Thief’ except Anais Mitchell wrote both herself. Hadestown is about the myth of Eurydice and Orphues. Orpheus is the son of one of the muses. He fell in love with Eurydice. They got married but the God of Marriage, Hymen, was off his usual patterns when at a wedding. This was seen as a bad omen which ended up true when Eurydice died of a snake bite. Orpheus, upon finding out his wife’s death, went into the underworld himself to plead for the love of his life back by singing his way through. He touched the hearts of everyone that got the chance to hear it. Hades and Persephone agreed but with one conduction which leaves this myth becoming one of the more well known myths. Orpheus can not look back towards Eurydice until they both reach the sun of the overworld. It seems like an easy thing, just don’t look back! That is the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus. Hadestown is a version of the myth so some parts are explained differently. Eurydice is 100% killed by a snake bite but in Hadestown, the events leading up to it are different. She is bitten while gathering firewood in the musical. I have briefly heard some songs of the musical but I have never watched it. The voices are beautiful and the right amount of power for the scenes. You might have heard some of the songs as popular audios like the song “Wait For Me”. Again, much like ‘The Lightning Thief’, there is no streaming service that has Hadestown but you can listen to the songs on Spotify and watch youtube videos of the performance. This myth is filled with the sorrow of a man who wanted to be with his wife eternally. It teaches that no matter how simple the situation is, it might not be so simple to accomplish with such a stake on the line. The myth doesn’t paint Orphues as an imbecile for looking back but it shows that it’s because Orpheus cares so much to go through the trouble to go to the underworld for his wife which brought him to look back to make sure she’s going to come back. “A Orphues who doesn’t turn around isn’t a Orpheus at all”.
Movies
If you’re not the musical or book type then try out the movies that are based on or include myths!
The most famous and well known movie that includes a Greek Myth is the Disney classic, Hercules! Even though Disney took from the myths Hercules was in, there are some things that weren’t included or wrong in the movie. Firstly, Hercules is the roman name so the name isn’t even the Greek verison. The Greek verison is Heracles. It doesn’t really make sense to use the Roman name when everyone else’s are their Greek names, besides maybe marketing. Another difference is the fact Heracles is not born from Hera and Zeus. Heracles is a demi-god and a demi-god is half god, half human so how would he be a demi-god born from two gods? In the movie, he is born from Hera and Zeus, then sent down to earth to be adopted by Amphitryon and Alcmene when Heracles is born from Alcmene and Zeus. Originally, there were 12 labors Heracles accomplished under the promise of immortality, while in Hercules, only 4 are shown. Along with those 4, Disney makes Hercules do other tasks instead of all the original 12. There are many other differences but this is not to discourage you from watching Hercules because it’s not accurate to Heracles. This is just some small fun facts contrasting Hercules and Heracles. The movie is still very interesting and a well made movie!
Peter Pan is actually connected to the Greek God, Pan! Peter Pan not only takes the name of the God Pan but also his flute. The Greek God Pan is the god of “the wild, shepherds, and flocks”. Peter Pan shares the playful and troublesome nature of Pan. Now to why Pan has a flute. Pan had been in love with Syrinx, a nymph. Syrinx did not reciprocate Pan’s feelings and ran away from him but Pan can match her speed giving them in other words, a long game of tag. Syrinx couldn’t run anymore and went to a river begging her sisters for an escape as she was the daughter of the river god, Ladon. She then turned into wild marsh reeds. Pan had collected and tied the reeds to each other after hearing the beautiful melody they gave off when the wind flew by. So Pan got to have his true love anywhere as his flute. If you’d like more background on Pan then go to “How Pan Got His Pan Flute” by Taylor Gmahling.
The Little Mermaid even has a small sneak of Greek mythology with the father of Ariel, Triton, who is the son of Poseidon.
A lesser known one that I didn’t even know about until researching is another Disney classic. The Lion King, which is actually not only portraying the themes of William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet but also the Egyptian myth of Osiris! But we’re not covering Egyptian myths today; this only goes to show there’s myths everywhere you just have to care enough to research and look for it!
Wrap Up
So now that you’ve heard about all the different places you can learn about Greek Mythology, do you think you’d want to get into Greek Mythology? You don’t have to be as interested as I am with my 4000 words blog but would you consider ever checking out any of these medias? As said in the beginning, this could up your reading levels and give you a whole new look on life! At the least, it’ll be something to keep you entertained as high school looms closer. These myths provide good distractions from the stress of a new school and even might help you with accepting the fact you’re getting older. Just try out one of the choices and you never know, you might love it. There’s a myth for everyone from romance to the cruelty of Ancient Greece, you just have to go out there and find it yourself!
Danely Granciano – Trinity High School – DMSF Class of 2029
Photo Credit: matiasdelcarmine – Adobe Stock