(banging on the ceiling with a broom handle?) For example, Gaia, mother of Titans (take that, Daenerys) is maybe a bit more like Joan Crawford (Earth-Mommy dearest?) in this telling, or a very unhappy landlady. And those on high are not shy about using others, other gods, lower-level gods, demi-gods, and mere mortals to implement their dark desires. Just like today, the lives of regular people in Greek mythology are made miserable by the feckless, selfish, ignorant actions of the people in charge. It’s in the build-up, the aftermath, the margins. The drama of war is not always found on the battlefield. And the Odyssey as well, as we trail Odysseus through some of his dodgy travails. So, Natalie Haynes offers a retelling of the story of Troy from the perspective of its female characters, the story she imagines Calliope might have been pressing on her reluctant client. It is rather light, though, on the stories about the impact of this lengthy war on women. The action centers on the leaders and the combatants, with a healthy dose of less-than-divine gods and goddesses, and adventure aplenty. The Iliad, by Homer, is the most widely read epic poem ever. We have all read it, (you did do the assigned reading in school right?) or certainly at least heard about it. Natalie Haynes – Image from her site – photo credit: Dan Mersh Other classical writers have offered some different perspectives, Euripedes in particular. That is the only one we have gotten, well, from him, anyway. But he insists on a singular, male-oriented view of the Troy story ( Ilios is Greek for Troy). Epic in scale and subject matter.Ĭalliope, Homer’s presumed muse, keeps trying to get him to tell the broader tale, not just the one about the men and their battles and intrigues.
I’m giving him the chance to see the war from both ends: how it was caused and how its consequences played out. Well, most of them (I haven’t decided about Helen yet. I’m not offering him the story of one woman during the Trojan War, I’m offering him the story of all the women in the war. I’m not sure I could have made it more obvious, but he hasn’t understood at all. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another. Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.
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