Gender Swapped Greek Myths

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Teresias was asked what sex was like for the different sexes and replied something like 'if the pleasure of sex can be counted as 10, 9 go to women, but 1 goes to men'. William, my 12 year old son, and I share a love of mythology and history. We have built over the years a collection of books filled with a wide range of retellings of the stories of Greek mythology. Hatshepsut seems to have experimented with gender to find a form that was both tolerable to the Egyptian people and elites, as well as best represented her personal image of herself. She is often depicted with both male and female attributes.

They haven’t rewritten the stories in this book. They haven’t reimagined endings, or reinvented characters. What they have done is switch all the genders. It might not sound like that much of a change, but you’ll be dazzled by the world this swap creates – and amazed by the new characters you’re about to discover.What is interesting is some of the fairy stories we know were specifically cautionary tales for girls. (Red Riding Hood was probably a warning to not enter prostitution). Of course names had to be changed, but since many Greek names have both male and female versions, this was not too hard to adjust for. Where not they made sure it was still a valid change in keeping with the myths themselves. It’s unclear why exactly, but she took on an official throne name and was almost immediately depicted wearing the male regalia of a Pharaoh, but still female pronouns within her royal name.

It allows us to see these stories through a fresh and rejuvenated set of eyes, and were it just for the concept I would give it a 10/10. Another thing that I really liked were the pictures: they were really beautiful and depicted the scenes in a vivid and imaginative way. Along the same lines, the book itself was really beautiful and overall the aesthetic was 10/10. Become a Faber Member for free and receive curated book recommendations, special competitions and exclusive discounts. I know that this is a book that we will read again and again. I think it is one that you will take something more from each time that you read it. It would be wonderful to use this book alongside more traditional retellins with children in upper KS2 and secondary education to see what they think of these Gender Swapped stories. I think there will be some incredible discussions and I hope that some children, like William, will be inspired to try changing the stories that mean the most to them to see a reflection of their world and to continue breaking down boundaries in stories and the world around them. I think that this was very well thought out and it all worked perfectly and the illustrations were very pretty.... Read Full Review I loved this book. It made me see these Greek myths in a whole new light just from the simple act of switching the gender roles.Following the incredible success of Gender Swapped Fairy Tales they have taken that same simple step. They haven't rewritten the stories in this book. They haven't reimagined the endings, or reinvented characters. What they have done is switch all the genders. Imagine a world where seductive male sirens lure brave heroines to their death, where Icara and her mother fly too close to the sun, and where beautiful men are forced to wed underworld queens… The Greek myths’ peak patriarchy, dramatic power imbalances and raging toxic masculinity demanded to be fed into the gender-swapping algorithm. Photograph: Karrie Fransman AI generated gender swap, with names, pronouns, and titles switched. The stories are otherwise unaltered, so they'll be familiar if you've read them before. The gender swaps I hope will undo all my unconscious bias and I’ll find my inner power!’ Philippa Perry

The use of an algorithm to do this became glaringly obvious as the stories went on and felt, frankly, quite lazy. Now if it had been done by hand with choices made by the author perhaps the writing would’ve read a lot more authentic. As it stands it’s just ok. And a little awkward in places.

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See Faber authors in conversation and hear readings from their work at Faber Members events, literary festivals and at book shops across the UK. Greek myths are not only rooted in reality but have helped shape modern thinking in many important ways. Their mythical nature does not take away from the fact they contain important morals and teachings that are as relevant now as they were thousands of years ago.” Fransman enjoyed the women who came out of the gender swap. “We now have these super-macho women, Thesea and Odyssea; they’re just awful. I don’t think I realised how badly behaved they were. I mean, Odyssea condemns her entire crew to death because she cannot not boast to the Cyclopsess. When people think of Odysseus and Theseus and Perseus, the male versions, I don’t think they think of them as psychopaths.” She is coming!” cried Thesea, and she ran forward to meet the beast. The seven bachelors shrieked, but tried to stand up bravely and face their fate; and the six young women stood together with firm-set teeth and clenched fists, ready to fight to the last. MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window)

I used to be fascinated by Greek mythology, but, even as a teenager, knew that they were fiction and a reflection of a long-gone society. That's one of the things that made them interesting. When I was reading kid’s versions of the Greek myths I was bizarrely naive. Or perhaps just ordinary levels of naive for a child that age. I had to make my own inferences and deductions about sexism and misogyny from my reading material - and I think I did a pretty good job all things considered, but it drove me a bit nuts that nobody ever talked about it. It was interesting for us both to read the author and illustrator notes at the beginning of the book, to see how the algorithm was used to change the stories and which elements had to be adapted manually. William also took great delight in the linguistics and especially the change of the names. Minoheifer made us both laugh! And we loved Medus with his beard of snakes.Seems a bit of a weird take to me. Were there that many people thinking that Zeus turning into a swan and raping a woman was some kind of salutary life example for the listener? That swapping the sexes will suddenly make people realise that this is wrong after all? William and I have particularly enjoyed reading The Fall of Icara, Thesus and The Minoheifer, Odyssea and The Cyclopess, Arachnus The Weaver and Persea and the Medus’ Head.