It has been a while since he has had a fight - a real fight. He had forgotten the taste of it, the flavour upon his tongue, and now here it is. Here she is. Enemy. His enemy, pure and glorious and simple and true.
He had not thought he could be so thrilled to look upon a combatant and see that she is female. [loc. 3357]
Ithaca, the first in Claire North's 'Songs of Penelope' trilogy, was a refreshingly different perspective on Greek myth: witty, colloquial and profoundly feminist. Ithaca was narrated by the goddess Hera. Volume two, House of Odysseus, is narrated by Aphrodite, and I suspect that the concluding volume will be narrated by Athena, for reasons to do with Paris and Mount Ida.
Penelope is still beset by suitors, and her son Telemachus has gone in search of his absent father Odysseus (who is, ahem, 'captivated' by the nymph Calypso). She'd hoped she'd seen the last of the House of Atreus after Orestes' murder of his mother Clytemnestra, but Elektra and Orestes return to Ithaca, the latter raving, insane and tormented by Furies. The Furies are only visible to Aphrodite, but the madness is plain to all. And, as though this weren't enough, Menelaus and his lovely wife Helen arrive, in search of the absent pair -- for Orestes is the king of all Greece, and if he's unfit for the job then Menelaus will bravely and selflessly step up.
It's a silent invasion: the Spartans are everywhere, 'guarding' those in the palace, 'going hunting' and rocking up at the house where Laertes (father of Odysseus) is sheltering Orestes and his sister, eclipsing the local bards, insisting that their priest take charge of Orestes' healing. Menelaus, addressing Penelope as 'sister', is loudly solicitous, and Penelope is well aware of her vulnerability -- and of the fact that Menelaus knows her husband better, and has spent more time with him, than Penelope herself.
Of course Penelope is not alone. Laertes (an utterly splendid grumpy old man in North's version) is one of the few to whom even Menelaus shows respect. Penelope's maids and the other women of Ithaca, all effectively invisible to the Spartans because female, conduct effective guerilla warfare. A few of the suitors -- notably the Egyptian, Kenemon, whose intriguing backstory is only hinted at -- play key parts in Penelope's plots, while others find themselves unwillingly pressed into service. And Penelope, for all her meekness and pious 'prayer' (the only way she gets peace to think), is a fearsome opponent, making some brutal decisions for the good of her island and her people.
Aphrodite's light-hearted narration offsets the grimness of the story very well, and her conversations with Athena and Artemis -- Hera having been confined in Olympus -- are often hilarious. Aphrodite reminds us, too, that she's the one who started all this, who 'broke the world' by promising Paris the love of the most beautiful woman alive. And though she may appear to be as empty-headed as her chatterbox protégé Helen, neither goddess nor mortal are as foolish -- or as harmless -- as they take pains to appear.
I am really looking forward to the third volume, in which it seems likely that Odysseus will finally return. His welcome may not be all he hopes, though, for Penelope is thoroughly fed up with men and their honour and their oaths...
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 22nd August 2023.
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