This sounds worthy of a bookstore visit: Nigel Spivey’s “Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real”:

[From Publishers Weekly] Psychological realism infuses Greek myths as reimagined by Cambridge classicist Spivey. Thus Herakles sounds as if he were confessing to a therapist when he explains his bravery: “It’s an act, isn’t it? The power of make-believe. The odd thing is… promise you won’t laugh… I used to get fired up by believing that my opponent was some maniac — yes, a maniac — coming after my wife and children.” Spivey’s heroes, as a result, are emotionally accessible but divested of their frightening grandeur.

It can be overdone, but a contemporization of classic works is often a fun exercise, both in attempt and execution. Shakespearean works have been subjected to this treatment of late, with a Hamlet set against a big-business corporate backdrop and a faux World War II/fascist England interpretation of Richard III standing out as my favorites.

Closer to the Greek myths, you could toss in O Brother, Where Art Thou? as a quality example. Beyond movies, Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series of graphic novels handled the treatment of old gods deftly, reinterpreting, for instance, Death as a goth-chick teenager.

I’m all for the goal of making the archaic classics more accessible to modern sensibilites. And I’d like to see how Spivey pulls it off.