Mythology for all audiences. With a lot of humor. And rigor. From the strength of Hercules to the wisdom of Athena, from the Trojan War to the universal flood of Greek mythology, in which only Deucalion and Pyrrha were saved… building an ark and carrying pairs of animals in it. Some myths without which, Emilio del Río assures in Little History of Classical Mythology (Espasa), “you cannot understand the cultural history of the West, music, literature, art.”
“And if Tom Jones’ song said that love is in the air, the myth is in the air. The days of the week are gods of mythology, and the planets are the stars,” he remarks. Friday comes from Venus, Tuesday and March from Mars, god of war, which also gives its name to the most Martian planet. “And from that mythology come a lot of expressions: it is said that this country is in a labyrinthine situation. And aphrodisiac products triumph. And sometimes they tell you that you have to be careful with certain emails because a Trojan could enter your computer. He has to do with the Trojan horse. Although the virus would have to be a Greek, because they are the ones that enter the city,” says the professor of Latin Philology at the Complutense University and director of Libraries, Archives and Museums of the Madrid City Council.
And he says that his is “a travel book, an adventure book, a culture book and also a self-help book, because myths convey messages, life lessons. For the classics, mythology was a religion, the way they had to explain the origin of the world, of things, and to project the human condition. Myths talk about good and evil, generosity and greed. “The Phoenix bird is the myth of resilience.”
“We need to tell each other stories from the caves. And classical mythology are the first ones we have told ourselves in the West and it is magical that we continue telling those stories as they are. But they have also been transforming: Marvel’s heroes are those of classic mythology. Superman is Perseus. Andromeda is Superman’s girlfriend. Hulk is Hercules. Now Oppenheimer has triumphed. The subtitle of the work on which it is based is Prometheus, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” says Del Río. And he emphasizes that “it is a religion that is not revealed truth, they incorporate gods from other places, they bring Cybele from Asia. It is a religion that poets, historians, philosophers, Plato, playwrights create, and they give variants to myths. “You don’t kill in the name of classical mythology.”
And although the one with the most pages in the book is Hercules, “the hero par excellence, who has later had various interpretations, because for centuries he was assimilated to Jesus Christ for sacrificing himself for others, but he has also been a symbol of the ability to overcome by his famous twelve works”, Del Río is left with other myths for today. “Narcissus takes the first selfie in history and we live in a time of narcissism. It is one of the myths that defines our time, there is a certain inability to love others. From the principles of the French Revolution, freedom has been assumed, although it is in decline in many places, and equality, but not fraternity,” he reasons.
“And a myth that we need more than ever,” he concludes, “is that of Athena. The goddess of wisdom, intelligence. And of Athens. She is the goddess of civilization in cities, we must live together, dialogue, reach agreements. “And the goddess of strategy in war. Mars is the god of war, but of brute force. We need more Athena: more strategy in everyday life, looking at the long term, wisdom, dialogue. More civilization.”