Olympian Nights is a 1902 fantasy novel written by American humorist John Kendrick Bangs.
The novel tells the tale of an unnamed narrator, who pays a visit to Greece and finds himself at Mount Olympus, updated to fit the modern (for then) era. He pays a visit around, meeting various deities and seeing how they’ve adjusted, in a humorous but also marvelous manner.
Tropes:
- God Is Flawed: The narrator enjoyed the company of the Olympians, finding them more like large-scale humans, but admits that’s part of how/why they faded away.
- Jerkass Gods: The Olympians, though a highly downplayed version.
- Zeus is the king of this. Whatever he says goes, whether it's fair or otherwise.
- Lackof Empathy: The narrator sees that all in Olympus is beautiful and marvelous, with no flaws or problems. This gives him an epiphany on how the Greek pantheon became powerless: it’s hard to sympathize or emphasize with people if you’ve never encountered suffering.
- One incident emphasizes this trope: Aesculapius, the god of medicine, only sees patients on two days of the week. After all, immortals in Olympus either don’t get sick or endure their sickness it wears out. The narrator visits Aesculapius and is at first mistaken for a god and is told to wait a week, but when he explains he is a mortal he gets immediate consultation.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The narrator sees what the future holds through an Olympian telescope. It’s forbidden for mortals to use that instrument, and it ends his heavenly sojourn; he is sent back to earth with his mind operated on so that he can’t remember what he saw, though he recalls everything else about his visit.
- No Herotohis Valet: A Greek guide who shows the narrator around his native land at the beginning of the novel has a poor opinion of the Olympians, knowing how troublesome they can be.
- Really Gets Around: The handsome playboy Adonis, serving as a valet in Olympus, discreetly mentions to the narrator that he’s carrying on behind his lover Venus’s back with a few demons from Hell.
- Roaring Rampageof Revenge: Actaeon, the Greek hunter who saw the goddess Diana naked and was punished for it by being turned into a deer and killed by his own hounds, is mentioned as doing this often. Justified in that after his violent death he’s still a deer, stuck in a zoo at Olympus.
- Secret Testof Character: The narrator is summoned to Zeus’s presence, but finds himself delayed in a little room with an annoying old man, and insults him for making him overdue. That old man ‘’was’’ Zeus, but he enjoyed riling up the narrator and was impressed with his honesty.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The narrator believes himself unwell and visits the god of medicine for treatment. The god discerns that his belief is just that and nothing more, noting that imaginary ailments are becoming common. He is quick to point out that this is no help in dealing with real illnesses.
