Summary
Summary of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 5 h 20 min4 h 15 min fast, 6 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 76,200 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1888by Richard Garnett
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Prometheus enters a changed world
Prometheus is freed when the eagle that torments him suddenly dies and his chains break. But freedom brings him into a world that has abandoned the old gods. Elenko, Apollo’s last priestess, meets him while fleeing the people looting her temple.
Together they encounter Christians smashing Apollo’s statues. When Prometheus bleeds and makes the sign of the cross, a bishop takes him for an early martyr. The scene turns a meeting between rival beliefs into a joke about how eagerly faith adopts whatever supports its story.
Key idea 2
Sacred status brings earthly dangers
Renamed Desmotes, Prometheus becomes a saint whose supposed pupil must teach him his own creed.
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Key idea 3
Useful tricks take over faith
An emperor persecutes the followers of Lao-tsze until he discovers they may possess the immortality he wants.
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Key idea 4
Great offices hide ordinary appetites
Plotinus hopes to build Plato’s Republic in a ruined city, but his pupil Porphyry has accounts to manage, and the sages quarrel over comforts.
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Key idea 5
Borrowed authority carries a price
When Apollo’s oracle falls silent, Eubulides receives an offer to restore it for gold.
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Key idea 6
Grand promises meet practical people
A mandarin tells his sons that imperial edicts forbid invention.
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Key idea 7
Wishes reveal their hidden costs
A mysterious purple robe sends a philosopher searching for its dye.
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Key idea 8
People defend their comforting illusions
Butterflies laugh when a lecturer tells them they were once caterpillars.
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Key idea 9
Ideals deserve respect despite defeat
Myth, legend and history give Garnett a gallery of human habits rather than a world separate from ordinary life.
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Go deeper: the whole of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
About 5 h 30 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
Readers who enjoy witty retellings of myth and history, devilish bargains, scheming bishops and clever fables will find a lively companion here. So will anyone who likes learned jokes.
What this book is
What happens when a chained Titan wakes in a world that no longer believes in his gods, and the first people he meets are a priestess in flight and a mob with hammers? Richard Garnett begins his collection with exactly that scene.
The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales is a book of short satires by Richard Garnett, an English scholar and librarian who died in 1906. The stories borrow old myths, saints, emperors and legends to poke at habits that never go away.
In this summary
- 1Prometheus enters a changed worldFree
- 2Sacred status brings earthly dangers
- 3Useful tricks take over faith
- 4Great offices hide ordinary appetites
- 5Borrowed authority carries a price
- 6Grand promises meet practical people
- 7Wishes reveal their hidden costs
- 8People defend their comforting illusions
- 9Ideals deserve respect despite defeat
A Titan wakes up as a mortal
The title story opens in the fourth Christian century, high on the Caucasus mountains. An eagle swoops at the chained Prometheus, as it has done every day for thousands of years. This time it drops dead from a clear sky, and his shackles snap.
He meets Elenko, the last priestess of Apollo in a land that has abandoned the old gods. She has fled a mob that is looting her temple, and she is shocked to hear a man who speaks the language of Homer scorn Zeus. Prometheus tells her who he is, and she believes him. The child mightier than Zeus was Man, he says, and his reward for loving humanity is to have become human himself.
The pair walk down the mountain and meet Christians smashing the statues of Apollo. A stone draws blood, and Prometheus makes the sign of the cross like a quick beginner. A jovial bishop decides the stranger is an early martyr and that the dead eagle proves it. Belief will gladly adopt whatever it finds lying about.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
How does the bishop interpret the newly freed Prometheus?
Right. “A jovial bishop decides the stranger is an early martyr and that the dead eagle proves it.”Not quite. “A jovial bishop decides the stranger is an early martyr and that the dead eagle proves it.”
What danger connects the stories of religious deception?
Right. “Faith that leans on a trick soon needs more tricks, and the tricks end by ruling it.”Not quite. “Faith that leans on a trick soon needs more tricks, and the tricks end by ruling it.”
What attitude toward ideals remains beneath Garnett’s satire?
Right. “Ideals matter even when they lose.”Not quite. “Ideals matter even when they lose.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
About 5 h 30 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 76,200 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 20 min
Questions about The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
What is The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales about?
It is a collection of short satirical stories by Richard Garnett. They retell myths, legends and episodes of history, such as a freed Prometheus, a devil who becomes Pope and a saint's bell, to poke fun at belief, vanity and power.
Who is Prometheus in the title story?
He is the Titan of Greek myth who was chained on the Caucasus for helping humanity. Here the chains fall off in the fourth Christian century, and he finds himself mortal in a Christian world, where he meets the priestess Elenko.
Is The Twilight of the Gods a true story?
No, it is fiction. Garnett uses real settings and figures, such as Gallienus, Plotinus, Pope Silvester the Second and Nonnus, but the events are invented satire. It was written in the late nineteenth century and has a playful, learned voice.
Is the book easy to read?
The tales are short and can be read one at a time, each with its own characters and a clear arc. The language is lively, the jokes land quickly, and the learned allusions are usually explained by the story itself.
What is the main message of the collection?
Garnett shows that tricks, bargains and fraud, even in the service of a good cause, tend to undo themselves. He also suggests that old gods survive as ideals, and that honest people still try to serve truth with discretion and good humor.
Cite this edition
Garnett, Richard. The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twilight-of-the-gods-and-other-tales.
Garnett, R. (2026). The twilight of the gods, and other tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twilight-of-the-gods-and-other-tales (Original work published 1888)
Garnett, Richard. The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twilight-of-the-gods-and-other-tales.
@book{garnett2026twilight,
author = {Garnett, Richard},
title = {The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twilight-of-the-gods-and-other-tales},
note = {First published 1888}
}
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