Similarly to Métopes composed around the same time, Mythes consists of three programmatic miniature tone poems drawing on Greek mythology.
The piece was heavily inspired by the composer's earlier travels in Sicily and North Africa and by impressionist music.
The work is considered an important milestone in 20th-century violin writing and was heavily admired by Szymanowski's contemporaries, such as Béla Bartók and Sergei Prokofiev.
[1] It features heavy use of advanced violin techniques, and the third movement famously contains quarter tones.
The piece has three movements, each depicting a scene from Greek mythology: