And You Thought Your In-Laws Were Tough

The next time you complain about your in-laws, imagine having to impress Zeus and deal with Aphrodite's temper tantrums. In Galen Surlak-Ramsey's The Gorgon Bride, Alexander Weiss, a smartass who made the mistake of pissing off Athena, landed himself in that exact position after falling for Euryale, a girl with poison snakes for hair just looking for love. (Try putting that on your Tinder profile.)

However, Aphrodite is furious that know-it-all Athena has encroached on her territory of all things love and infatuation—and successfully at that, since Euryale and Alex seem to get along quite well. To reclaim her status and spite Athena (Greek mythology may just be one big circle of everyone pissing each other off), Aphrodite escorts Alex's childhood love, Jessica, into Olympus, leaving Alex to grapple with the love he has for his new wife and the love he used to feel for Jessica. 

The Gorgon Bride interprets human experiences through an adventure of Greek mythology. Is love a choice or a feeling? Which is more important, the past or the present? How do you respond to in-laws that kidnap your wife and threaten to kill you? (Thanks for that one, Ares.)

In an attempt to answer these questions, Alex becomes obsessed with finding a potion to tell him who he wants to be with, Euryale or Jessica. He’s desperate for a formula, for directions to guide him as to how to make the right choice. Even beyond romance, being faced with decisions that make us want to pull our hair out is a common symptom of the human experience. In real (boring) life, people try numerous things as treatment for the stress of choices, like pros and cons lists, therapy, sitting and staring at the wall, and drinking and eating ice cream. In the world of Greek mythology, Alex endures a resentful Polyphemus, the hungry Nemean Lion, and burning on a wheel of flames just for someone to tell him what he already knows.

People wish for things to be as simple as gathering ingredients for a potion to fix their life, but sometimes things are just as simple as listening to yourself. Literature that takes us to fantastical places with fantastical people is a visual and creative representation of the inner journey humans all face in one way or another. Unless you're faced with a pissed-off Ares. Then, I don't know what to tell you. Being a Greek girl myself, I can confirm that my family has enough hot-headed and passionate in-laws to go around!