Tag Archives: Greek mythology

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

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The Women of Troy cover

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker is the sequel to her book The Silence of the Girls. This one continues with the Greeks sitting cramped in the wooden horse, waiting to be able to jump out and overcome Troy, if it isn’t dragged into the city and isn’t burnt with the men in it. All goes to their plan and Achilles’ son Pyrrhus seeks out the elderly King Priam to murder him, which he manages to do eventually although he botches it badly. The women of Troy are now all slaves, the ‘best’ given to the officers and the others being passed around the ordinary soldiers. King Priam’s body lies in a bloody heap with the Greeks not allowing him a funeral, the final indignity for him and those who loved him. Briseis who is now married to Alcimus but pregnant with Achilles’ child goes in search of Helen whom she had met when she was younger. So many people blame her for the war so Helen is not at all popular, but Briseis is trying to forge relationships where she can. She discovers that hundreds of women had commited suicide and she fears that her sister Ianthe was one of them, she can see no little boys at all. It seems that even they have been killed by the victors.

The Greeks are stranded in Troy due to the weather, there’s just no wind to fill their sails. To stop the soldiers from getting bored and drunk, which would surely lead to them fighting among themselves Alcimus decides to hold competitive games. The men all think that they’re unable to sail home because they’ve angered the gods, they’ve treated their priest as a figure of fun in the past.

This was an enjoyable read particularly as the women do feature a lot more in this one and they’re all interesting characters. I’ve always identified with Cassandra!

Thanks to Penguin Books, Hamish Hamilton for sending me a digital copy of the book via NetGalley.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

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The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is the first book in her re-telling of Homer’s Iliad. The story is narrated mainly by Briseis who has been given to Achilles as his prize although from time to time we get things from the perspective of Achilles. It’s a big change in the fortunes of Briseis as she’s gone from being a queen to being a slave and concubine and she knows that at any time if Achilles feels like it he could hand her over to the ordinary soldiers to do what they want with her. Some of the women have chosen to commit suicide rather than be used by their conquerors, but Briseis can’t bring herself to do that.

There’s a clash of personalities between King Agamemnon and Achilles. Agamemnon is keeping safe in his ship, just observing fighting and this is infuriating Achilles who decides that if Agamemmnon isn’t going to risk his life in battle – neither will he. Agamemnon insists on stripping Achilles of his war prizes, meaning that Achilles must give Briseis to him. Achilles had begun to think of Briseis as his wife, he has mental health problems stemming from his mother (of course) who as a goddess had returned to the sea, wading out of it to visit him frequently. Briseis had realised that her own sea bathing had been what had caused Achilles to become interested in her. When he had to give her up to Agamemnon he was bereft. With his army begging him to fight Patroclus decides to pretend he’s Achilles. It’s all going to end in tears!

I enjoyed this although I did think that it is mis-titled as the ‘girls’ don’t feature hugely in the book – on second thoughts maybe that’s the whole idea. Apart from Briseis the most prominent characters are Achilles and Patroclus.

If you’re interested in reading a far more detailed review you can have a look at Jack’s here.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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The Song of Achilles has been nominated for the Orange prize. I very rarely read books which have been nominated for prizes, I remember being unimpressed by Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac which won the Booker prize years ago and that sort of put me off. I also don’t like doing things at the same time as everyone else, I’d rather plough my own furrow. However, when Anbolyn of Gudrun’s Tights mentioned that she had really enjoyed The Song of Achilles I thought I would give it a go, you can read her enthusiastic review here.

Patroclus is the son of a King but he’s a disappointment to his father and after a disastrous encounter with Clysonymus, the young son of a nobleman, Patroclus was exiled and sent to live at the court of King Peleus where he meets Achilles and the two become inseparable. It’s all gods and heroes and the Trojan wars but it isn’t very bloody and gory, if you’re worried about that sort of thing.

I was keen on Classical Studies when I was at school but after one year of Greek and Roman mythology I opted to do Latin for three years. In those dim distant days it was only boys who were going to be church ministers who took Greek so they could read the bible in the original. Yes, it was long before any women had even thought of the possibility of going into the church. Greek would have killed me.

Anyway, if you’re at all interested in Greek mythology then I recommend you read The Song of Achilles, it’s well written and entertaining and as Anbolyn said, it does make you want to look further into the subject. I had completely forgotten that the Trojan Wars were supposed to have lasted 10 years or so. Of course apart from fighting, this is basically a love story between Achilles and Patroculus, very delicately written.

Going off at a bit of a tangent – I was watching the Olympic flame being lit in Greece on the news yesterday, and when that sudden gust of wind blew out the flame – I wondered – who is the Greek god of winds? Of course it was Aeolus – as in Aeolean harp. What a bad omen, it doesn’t bode well for the games.

That poor woman!