The first "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" (2005) introduces the hero narrating his adventures. The premise is that the Greek gods are now in America with Mount Olympus now high above the UN building in New York as the deities move to a place that is the spiritual hub of Western civilisation.
This has been dwelt on here earlier, including a brief overview of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series and its subsequent cycle, the Heroes of Olympus series, but both deserves a relook as the latter came to a rousing conclusion last month.īoth the series are not only a modern look at the old myths, but also a unique take on the coming of age genre and also a wry, ironic look at modern life, especially American, through what we may term a "pagan prism". Not only are quest-based fables or epics precursors of modern literature, they are also a rich resource for portraying the human condition as new writers recount and re-interpret them, including in contemporary idiom and sensitivity, as well as serving as a mirror of changing mores when re-told from another perspective, even of those usually originally tarred as the villains.ĭue to various historical and cultural reasons, the Greek pantheon occupies a predominant position - at least for English-language readers - and even after nearly 25 centuries, is still vibrantly alive across a variety of media and language.
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