Clytemnestra

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And that is most of her life – her childhood and first marriage in a Sparta where the girls learn to fight as well as the boys; the many years. She experiences great personal tragedy at various points in her life–as those of you who are familiar with Greek mythology will be aware of–and uses it to grow stronger, to shape herself into a figure of authority.

We see the trauma she suffers at his hand, capped off by the sacrifice of her eldest daughter so that Agamemnon’s ships could catch a wind to Troy. Costanza Casati’s debut novel is a creative retelling of the life of Clytemnestra, a classical heroine of Greek mythology. Her lifelong passion for ancient Greece was ignited as a child by stumbling across stories of gods and heroes in the dictionary. It is just fascinating and fabulous that a woman of Greek Mythology can be so notorious and talked about, but yet has had such a small voice and has been type casted and condemned (traditionally).Casati does not hold back in a bloody, brutal depiction of the position of women in this landscape—political pawns, easily destroyed and discarded. I was so deeply invested in these rich, nuanced characters that I will not be forgetting any time soon. So many depictions of strong, powerful women, especially modern ones, present a career-driven, ambitious woman that has little to no interest in or love for children. In Casati’s beautifully worded prose, knowledge of the tragedies that await Clytemnestra is not a prerequisite, although readers who are in the know will find this only adds to the dramatic tension as events unfold.

They are all loved, all except Helen, by the King, as he thinks Leda (Helen and Clytemnestra’s mother) had taken with another man to beget this daughter. Queen Clytemnestra’s world shatters when Agamemnon, a rival to the throne of Mycenae, storms her palace, destroys her family and claims not only the throne but Clytemnestra herself.But, whatever may come of this, whatever of the future, the sisters are close and nothing will part them. I am an avid fan of the Greek Mythology retellings and this book was on my radar straight after being published. In the bathroom, Helen is already cleaning herself in the painted clay bath, the old wounds on her arms dressed with herbs. I can barely remember the Greek myths I read as a child and have enjoyed rediscovering them through books like this.