Zeus on the Loose (London: Young Corgi, 2004);

Zeus Sorts It Out (London: Young Corgi, 2011).

Zeus to the Rescue is the second in a trio of illustrated chapter books about the adventures of Zeus in a modern British playground. It follows from Zeus on the Loose. Alex, the protagonist of the book, has recovered from Zeus’s first visit to the school. However, a pendant shaped like a lightning bolt, which Zeus has given him, starts to quiver. Could it be in response to a new girl, Diana, who seems to have an uncanny power over the girls in class, and their teacher, Miss Wise? Diana fosters division between the girls and boys, claiming that the boys are trying to see them changing, en route to their sports practice. When Diana turns on a boy, named Troy, threatening to turn him into a pig, Alex and his friend Charlie try to summon Zeus, using the cardboard temple they had made in the previous book. At first, Zeus pretends not to be available, and mimics an answering machine, but eventually is persuaded to come to help the boys. He arrives, wearing a towel, and dripping, because he had been in the bath. It emerges that Diana is the goddess Artemis, who has come to the school because Zeus has told them how much fun he had had on his previous visit. She is annoyed that her father is embarrassing her by showing up, and they decide to have a competition. If Zeus can persuade Miss Wise to kiss him, Diana will go home. Alex, Charlie and Zeus consult the class copy of the Bumper Book of Greek Myths, and read about Artemis’s powers. They are alarmed by the story of Actaeon, and rightly frightened by Diana. They also read about Zeus’s different romantic exploits, which he then trials on Miss Wise, to small effect. When he tries to approach her in the form of a shower of golden rain (cf Danaë), Diana hastily gives her a magic umbrella that repels the drops. When he approaches her in the form of a bull (Europa), Miss Wise pulls him by the ring in his nose into the girls’ bathroom. When he approaches her in the form of a dove (as swans seem unrealistic) (Leda), Diana whisks the classroom windows shut, denting his beak. Eventually he is successful, turning himself into a piglet: Miss Wise scoops him up and kisses him on his nose. Enraged, Diana turns Charlie into a pig, but Alex threatens to tell everyone that Diana has silver bows and arrows on her underpants, and she is forced to change him back.

This is an example of comic intrusion fantasy, in which the mythical elements intrude into the real life of modern characters. Zeus’s traditional irascible nature, association with lightning, vengeance, and wilfulness are deployed to comic effect, in a story that provides a quick snapshot of well-known elements of Greek mythology. Zeus to the Rescue also provides a comic introduction to the story of Actaeon catching Artemis bathing, and to the attributes of Artemis as well. Diana/Artemis is appropriately haughty, and her girls-only policy is applied to the classroom scene. Some of the uncomfortable aspects of Zeus’s different attempts at courtship are glossed over, given the age group of the target audience, but the general impression of the Greek gods being unruly, capricious, and vengeful is conveyed to comic effect in contrast with the mild boys, Charlie and Alex. Zeus’s masculinity is sent up through his feminised attire (bath towel).