Jennifer Saint writes the mythological story of Ariadne from her and her sister Phaedra’s points-of-view.
“I took that story with me in the coming days and turned it over, like the stone in a ripe peach: the sudden, unexpected hard shock in the center of everything.” pg 14
Like Circe, Ariadne gives the female figures in the classic tale a voice, something they have never had in the original telling.
“The cold green of his eyes. Like the shock of the chill waters when the seafloor drops away unexpectedly beneath your feet and you realize that you have swum out far beyond your depth.” pg 34
For those not familiar with the myths, Ariadne was in charge of the Minotaur’s labyrinth on Crete. Theseus relied on her for help when he confronted the monster, who was also Ariadne’s half-brother.
What happens next is the main part of this story. The labyrinth encounter is finished in the first 100 pages, which surprised me. I expected it to be longer.
Saint touches on the unfair nature of many of the classic myths towards women, which includes the story of Medusa and any number of Zeus’s mortal lovers. Zeus took lovers again and again, and his wife visited all sorts of nasty revenges upon them. But that didn’t stop Zeus’s prowling.
Ariadne is somewhat empowered in this story- she realizes the unfair treatment- but at the same time she isn’t able to do much to change her own fate, or the fate of her beloved sister Phaedra.
The gods and goddesses are bound by fate as well. This is most easily seen in some of the stories Dionysus tells about his time among mortals. I could see book clubs having a great time discussing the roles of fate and free will in this story.
I think Saint could have gone a little further in her interpretation of the myths, she stays pretty close to the original telling. It still makes for a beautiful story, but it could have been even better.
Recommended for readers interested in Greek and Roman mythology.
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