About
We explain old stories for people with new attention spans
That includes us. Myths Explained exists because Greek myths are brilliant, and most introductions to them are either too long or too vague.
TL;DR
A handful of editors, one shared byline: “the Myths Explained editors”. One of us drafts, another cuts, and the cutting is how a myth gets under five minutes. No ads, no sponsors, no trackers, no paywall.
The format
Every explainer has the same three layers, so you can stop whenever you have had enough:
- TL;DR: the myth in two or three sentences.
- The myth in 60 seconds: exactly five sentences that tell the whole story in order.
- The Q&A: the questions people actually ask, answered in plain English, with the occasional joke.
How we keep it accurate
- We go back to ancient sources such as Hesiod, Homer, the Homeric Hymns, Ovid and Apollodorus, using public-domain translations.
- When ancient writers disagree, and they often do, we say so instead of picking one version and pretending it is the only one.
- We mark the difference between ancient myth and later folk tradition.
- We keep facts we cannot check out of the piece. A joke is fine; a made-up date is not.
The pictures
Our bold pictogram illustrations are created digitally for Myths Explained: thick flat shapes, three colours, no real people. The one picture that breaks the rule is the stormy Parthenon on the front page, and it has earned it: Athena’s statue inside that temple once wore Medusa’s face.
Who it is for
Curious adults, students, teachers looking for a quick refresher and families who want to settle an argument about Medusa. The explainers are written to be suitable for readers from about age ten up.
Talk to us
Spotted a mistake? Want a myth explained? Write to [email protected] or use the question form. New explainers appear in our RSS feed.