This title might be a bit of a misnomer – pretty much all fantasy is inspired by world mythology, though the rate of inspiration varies. While the literary origins of every fantasy tale can be retraced to old school epics like Gilgamesh, Beowolf, and The Odyssey, some fantasy series borrow more directly from these mythos than others. When it comes to this list, we’re looking at titles that truly copied the homework that their literary forebears worked so hard to originate. Of course, many of these tales then subvert the literary tropes of the source material, earning them a well deserved A+ on the assignment after all! So here goes, the 10 best fantasy books inspired by world myths and legends.
Circe
(Back Bay Books)Madeline Miller carved out a literary name for herself with her beautiful and devastating Song of Achilles, which intimately retold the tale of love between Achilles and Patroclus that Homer only hinted at in The Iliad. With her sophomore novel Circe, Miller gives us another emotional gut punch centered around a secondary antagonist from Homer’s Odyssey – the titular witch herself. Before she began her tenure turning sailors into pigs, Circe was a bullied goddess in the court of Helios. After being banished to a desert island for taking a magical stand against a rival, Circe discovers that her god-cursed new life is actually a blessing in disguise. She’s now free to spend her immortal days pursuing the lost art of witchcraft, which, yes, culminates in her turning sailors into pigs. What The Odyssey doesn’t tell you is that many of these sailors deserved it, nor does it explain the emotional journey that led her into (and out of) Odysseus’s arms in the first place.
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