The tagline for this book totally won me over – who doesn’t want to read about ‘gay gods, Sapphic saints and queerness through the ages’? Add in a back-cover mention of Lestat and Louis from ‘Interview with a Vampire’, Virginia Woolf’s ‘Orlando’ and (more classical and more what I expected from the book) Achilles and Patroclus from Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and I’m sold. Sign me up!
The book itself is divided into short, easily digestible chapters of about 3 or 4 pages each. There’s also some lovely full page black and white illustrations thrown in for good measure – a nice touch that adds to the pleasure of reading this book.
It’s written in a friendly, chatty and often humorous style. There were quite a few bits that made me smile – the idea of lyrical poet Sappho as the Lin-Manuel Miranda of her time, Zeus as the world’s ‘busiest bisexual’ and Salmacis channeling The Spice Girls ‘2 Become 1’ are just a few examples. Jones is funny and has a way of making ideas accessible and relatable.
That’s not to say there isn’t a serious amount of research and scholarship on display here – Jones packs descriptions of the various figures with references to source texts (there’s a good amount of Ovid and Co on display here), artistic representations and cultural references. The book moves seamlessly from Michaelangelo to David LaChapelle, Clement of Alexandria to ‘Clash of the Titans’, Virginia Woolf to Maurice Sendak – and I think Jones should absolutely be commended for making this book both didactic and engaging for modern readers. I’ll take this over Homer’s ‘Iliad’ any day…and I have read both!
If I was going to be a bit picky, I’d say that it would really help to see some of the art works that Jones refers to – I did a fair amount of Googling so I could see what was being referred to in various chapters. ‘Sleeping Hermaphroditus’ from the Louvre is definitely worth a look and David LaChapelle’s striking photos with mythological inspiration are pretty interesting – in fact, lots of the references in the book will have you trawling the internet for more information. I get that copyright would limit some of the images that could be used in the book, but it’s a shame. Maybe a deluxe full-colour version with more illustrations when this is reprinted in the future?
I liked that Jones included LGBTQ+ figures from outside the Western canon – yes, there’s Greek gods and Sappho and Woolf, but there’s also Egyptian gods, Mayan mythology and Inuit folklore (amongst many other non-Western stories). It’s still not balanced and there’s a fair amount of British/American TV in there too – ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer to name just a few – but it’s a refreshing take on the often narrower focus of books about mythology.
Personally, I found the chapters on characters from older texts and classical stories a bit more engaging because of their legacies evident in art, film and modern culture generally, but each to their own. Plus I’m a Literature graduate who is always going to be more comfortable with Viola from ‘Twelfth Night’ than Xena: Warrior Princess! Still, it’s all written so well that you’ll fly through this book, whatever your personal interests.
I’d really recommend this to anyone with an interest in mythology, especially when focused through an LGBTQ+ lens – this did give me some fresh perspectives on things I hadn’t really thought about in much depth before. Those with a Classics/Literature background will find many old friends here, while others less familiar with this topic have got the joy of new discoveries ahead of them. I’m absolutely convinced there’s interest and learning points in this for everyone – plus a whole lot of fun along the way.
Thanks to the lovely people at Octopus Books for my beautiful, shiny copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.
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