96 pages • 3 hours read
Bernard EvslinHeroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths
Fiction | Short Story Collection | YA | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Aphrodite
Across antiquity, Aphrodite’s birth story varied. The one Evslin chooses to retell in his collection portrays Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, as belonging to an earlier generation of gods who predate the Olympians. This choice could be interpreted as placing Aphrodite outside of Zeus’s direct supervision and jurisdiction but aligning her cooperatively with him to ensure a stable pantheon. Such a view aligns with Evslin’s portrayal of love as the guiding and strongest force in the cosmos.
Throughout the collection, Aphrodite’s presence is a driving force, demonstrating her power, influence, and importance. Her intervention leads to happy endings for Hippomenes and Pygmalion, unhappy ones for Daphne and Psyche. While she is portrayed as immensely powerful, she is also subject to flaws. She is portrayed as jealous of mortal women’s beauty, prone to gossip, and chronically unfaithful to her husband. Ancient Greek gods, like demigods, are not inherently good but deploy their power for both good and bad ends.
Zeus
Zeus is called the “father of the gods” figuratively, because he is the lead authority figure within the pantheon. In actuality, he is the youngest of his five siblings, who rule alongside him. He is their leader because he is the first who is not swallowed by their father, Cronos, and the one responsible for overthrowing their father and releasing his siblings. These events enable him to assume leadership and control. He marries Hera and their children become part of the pantheon. He also engages in extramarital affairs that produce children who ascend to godhood.
The implication in ancient myths and Evslin’s collection is that Zeus may be stronger than his siblings and children, but that it might be possible to overthrow him. He takes active measures to crush potential opposition and maintain stability. He swallows Metis to prevent her from giving birth to a son who will depose him. He punishes Prometheus for bringing men fire and enabling them to rise in power. He marshals the strength of several gods to create Pandora (and women more generally) in order to deliver suffering and distraction to men. He is also known for sending subordinate gods, Hermes and Athene especially, to do his bidding. His direct peacekeeping efforts among the gods do not entirely eliminate violence: he resurrects Asclepius only after killing him, and compromises with Demeter to allow her time with her daughter.
Apollo
Apollo (along with his twin sister Artemis) is one of Zeus’s illegitimate children who ascends to top status in the Olympiad and assumes an active role in the lives of heroes, guiding or subverting them depending on his will. Evslin portrays Apollo as rash and prone to extremes as a young god but gradually more just and moderate as he matures. This progressive maturation is Evslin’s modern take on the god, and does not necessarily represent the way Apollo appears in ancient sources.
As Evslin repeatedly shows, gods use their power at their pleasure. Apollo’s most brutal episode is flaying Marsyas, who does nothing wrong other than be talented and admired, which stokes Apollo’s envy. Evslin employs narrative organization to promote his progressive depiction of Apollo’s growth: Ending with the fables allows Evslin to conclude the collection by portraying Apollo in his best light. With Midas, Apollo is moderate and benevolent, using punishment to prompt Midas’s understanding. Giving Midas what he wants teaches him the harmful effect of greed, while treating him justly is Apollo’s lesson on the value of mercy.
