The Best Mythology Retellings: Greek, Norse, and Beyond
June 5, 2026
The modern wave of mythology retellings — ancient stories told from new angles, often centring the women and monsters the originals pushed to the margins — shows no sign of slowing. If Circe and The Song of Achilles left you wanting more, here’s where to go.
The modern classics
Circe — Madeline Miller The book that defined the wave. The witch of the Odyssey gets a full, luminous life of her own. If you’ve only heard the hype, it lives up to it.
The Song of Achilles — Madeline Miller The Iliad reframed as a love story between Achilles and Patroclus. Devastating, and the reason a generation fell for the genre.
The Greek myth essentials
A Thousand Ships — Natalie Haynes The Trojan War told entirely through its women. Sharp, angry, and wide-ranging.
Stone Blind — Natalie Haynes Medusa as you’ve never seen her — a sympathetic, furious retelling of the most famous “monster” in myth.
Ariadne — Jennifer Saint The woman who helped Theseus through the labyrinth, and what it cost her. Saint has become one of the most reliable names in the genre (try Elektra and Atalanta too).
The Silence of the Girls — Pat Barker Briseis and the women of Troy, from a literary heavyweight. The most unflinching book on this list.
Norse and beyond
The Witch’s Heart — Genevieve Gornichec Norse myth from the perspective of Angrboda, the witch who loves Loki. Tender and tragic — the standout Norse retelling.
The Wolf Den — Elodie Harper Roman rather than mythic, but adjacent in spirit: the women of Pompeii’s brothel, vividly realised.
Ithaca — Claire North Penelope holding Ithaca together while Odysseus is away, narrated by a goddess. Tense, political, and modern.
Why the genre endures
These books work because myths were never fixed — they were always retold to suit the teller. This generation of writers is doing exactly what the ancients did: taking the old stories and asking whose version have we never heard? The answers are some of the most affecting fiction being written today.