Daughters of Sparta: A tale of secrets, betrayal and revenge from mythology's most vilified women

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Here is Agamemnon’s full reply (Richmond Lattimore’s translation, underlines are mine to correspond with what Heywood extracts from, if I’m not mistaken, Emily Wilson’s translation): Brilliantly compelling . . . the perfect balance between historical authenticity and characters who I really connected with Heywood leaves the gods out of the story, other than as vague powers to whom characters refer, in this sense taking a quasi-historical/materialist/psychoanalytic rather than fantasy approach to the Trojan war myth. The choices she makes to achieve this approach toward the characters and their experiences are interesting to think about, and her prose is engaging. I believe this novel will find an enthusiastic audience among readers who enjoy modern women’s narratives dressed in ancient Greek costumes. Another disconnect between Heywood’s ancient Greece and the one that has come down to us through epic: Her Agamemnon obsesses about winning “glory,” which is accurate broadly speaking. But without the interplay between mortality and immortality that exists in epic, the concept of kleos—what Homeric heroes fight for—loses its meaning. What these heroes were trying to win was not some vague, undifferentiated “glory” but immortality through song (the aforementioned kleos). They want to be remembered and, through memory, to achieve a kind of immortality. Heywood chooses not to engage with the desire to be remembered as a genuine concern of humans. Her Agamemnon gloats that he was able to rally “all of Greece” by giving them “a cause”: “let them tell themselves they’re fighting for Greece, or liberty, or…whatever, and they’ll jump at the chance for some action.” Men just want to run around killing and dying in violent conflicts, apparently. For what reason? I also loved seeing the blending of other Greek myths that the author weaves into this story. You’ll recognize many famous faces such as Theseus, the Minotaur, King Minos, Hippolyta, the Sphinx of Thebes, and many more gods and goddesses.

In the interest of keeping this review shorter than the book, I will mention one last disconnect of significance: the pervasiveness of individualistic thinking that feels out of step with the ancient Greek world. Helen, who Heywood seems to have chosen to represent women who do not want to have children, mopes that she wishes for a husband who “might want her for herself alone, and not for the children she could give him.” This statement reflects an “individual in/vs. society” kind of thinking that feels more Western European post-Enlightenment than ancient Greek. It’s hard to imagine ancient people thinking of themselves in such individualistic terms. Male heirs had a practical purpose that Heywood seems aware of via Klytemnestra’s narrative: to project strength to potential enemies pondering violence against a community. This is not to say that ancient women might not want something other than to be wives and mothers or that every woman would want to have children, but to think of themselves as distinct from the communities they belonged to and exempt from implicit threats…this feels very modern. Helen wanting a different role within her community or wanting more roles to exist within the community would have made more sense than for her to be thinking about her individual relationship with her husband separate from its consequences on her community. And I understand your upset about the quote at the beginning, wholeheartedly. I think that it was a careless choice, especially because, as you say, she doesn’t include any explanation for it in her author’s note. I think it was done without a lot of reflection, unfortunately. I thought it was especially fascinating to read the section that takes place in the Greek underworld. I haven’t seen much of that in YA literature before.All this is to say, Agamemnon’s claims about women in the speech Heywood pulls from are not coming from a reliable narrator. Odysseus’ response to Agamemnon is revelatory. He notes that the “schemes of women” are vehicles through which Zeus’ will is accomplished. If Agamemnon is not to blame for his bad acts because they were willed by the gods (as he claims in the Iliad), then why should he blame Klytemnestra for her bad acts? Would not they, too, be the will of the gods? Again, those who know Trojan war myth will know that the Trojan and Theban wars were, according to Hesiod, how Zeus chose to bring the Age of Heroes to an end. In this context, could Agamemnon blaming not only Klytemnestra but all women be seen as somewhat impious, a denial of how the gods work their will through humans? Agamemnon has also been known to compare himself to Zeus ( Iliad 19.95), and his ancestors’ impiety has caused the entire family line to be cursed (as alluded by Odysseus). Content Warnings: Fantasy violence throughout (some graphic); torture with a branding iron; some kissing; at least 1 use of the s-word.* The story of the Siege of Troy from the infamous Helen and her sister Klytemnestra's points of view - a tale of secrets, passion and revenge from the women behind mythology's most devastating war. Required reading for fans of Circe . . . a remarkable, thrilling debut‘– Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue Daphne is the main heroine of this story. I liked Daphne’s spirit and loyalty to her family and country. She is tasked with finding nine items that were stolen from Olympus. If she fails, the powers of the gods will disappear, and the mortal world would be thrown into chaos! She never gives up and perseveres even when the road gets tough.

In this book, you’ll find human-to-animal transformations, magical objects, angry gods, rescue attempts, the crashing of a royal banquet, and more! urn:lcp:daughtersofspart0000heyw:lcpdf:d74a4db9-59ba-4988-bab7-170d0af8f677 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier daughtersofspart0000heyw Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2httzfr33c Invoice 1652 Isbn 9780593184356 But there is a good amount of action in this book, and I certainly enjoyed the excitement of those scenes!Odysseus replies, “Shame it is, how most terrible Zeus of the wide brows/from the beginning has been hateful to the seed of Atreus/through the schemes of women. Many of us died for the sake of Helen,/and when you were far, Klyaimestra plotted treason against you.” Lines 436-439 And that said, I also see your point about questioning “reclaiming” these stories in any sense of the word, rather than celebrating and learning more about them as they were originally told and in their original cultural context. I think it would be so interesting to have more resources like that!

But when the weight of their husbands’ neglect, cruelty, and ambition becomes too heavy to bear, Helen and Klytemnestra must push against the constraints of their society to carve new lives for themselves, and in doing so, make waves that will ripple throughout the next three thousand years. I also like that Agamemnon blames the gods for his/men’s actions, but thinks women are entirely responsible for them. Ugh. That also feels to me like a sentiment that rings down through the ages and has kept women oppressed in so many cultures and so many contexts. If I have one complaint about Daughters of Sparta, it’s that it feels a bit too short. We are, after all, dealing with two of the most (in)famous women of ancient myth, one known for committing the heinous act of murdering her husband in his own house, the other known throughout history as a woman who ran away from her rightful husband and launched a devastating war. There are several time jumps that leap over some important developments—particularly the relationships between Klytemnestra and Aigisthos and between Helen, Paris, and the rest of the residents of Troy. The book focuses exclusively on Helen and Klytemnestra’s points of view. Because this focus meant the majority of the story was internal monologue of the women’s thoughts and feelings about their experiences, the third person narrative felt jarring, as compared to the intimacy of first person. I wondered if the intention was to bestow a sense of universality on these two women’s experiences. If so, it didn’t quite work. Heywood’s tendency to project modern worldviews and resentments into the past amplified the disconnect between narrative style and characters. It also felt reductive, as it stripped the myths and the various ways they were told across antiquity of their complexities, paradoxes, and ambivalent meanings.Claire M. Andrews, Daughter of Sparta Final Thoughts Flatlay of Daughter of Sparta on top of a notebook betweek a Greek painted dish and a teapot and wolf dish on the other side.