What's the point in telling the old stories all over again in the same way? [loc. 549]
Natalie Haynes, author of The Amber Fury, Stone Blind and Divine Might (and a number of works that I haven't yet read) turns her attention to the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. I expected this to be another novel about Jason and Medea, but Haynes' focus is broader: No Friend to this House, with its multitude of female narrators, explores the lasting damage caused by the Argo's voyage and her crew's actions, as well as Medea's love for and abandonment by Jason.
There are chapters from the viewpoints of priestesses, goddesses (who are usually responsible for getting Jason out of whatever sticky situation he's blundered into), animals (including the dove sent to fly ahead of the Argo to test the Symplegades and a crow that's Hera's messenger), the women of Lemnos and the enslaved Thracian women, naiads and harpies and nymphs...
The mortal women are often powerless, lacking agency; the goddesses have power, but are as exasperated by mortal men as by the gods. There's a healthy and heartening theme of female solidarity (for instance, the women of Corinth defending Medea to Jason) and some notes on Greek grammar. "... no matter how many girls were in a room (just one, in this instance), if boys were there too, the word 'children' takes the masculine ending. And the girls disappear." [loc. 3066]
Haynes' afterword explains that this is the novel she's been preparing to write for most of her life. (The title is a line from Euripides' Medea, and refers to Jason. She discusses the marginalisation of women, and the plethora of lost children, in the myths: and she explains why her version of Medea, unlike that of Euripides, has not descended into madness.
No Friend to this House is a fascinating collection of narratives, linked by the Argo and her captain. There were quite a few myths that were unfamiliar to me (Haynes provides a good bibliography) and each narrator had a distinct character, from an indignant Erato addressing the reader directly to an enslaved Thracian woman advising Iphinoe of Lemnos how to avoid mess when murdering a man. Recommended for anyone who's bored of straightforward retellings of Greek mythology.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advance review copy: UK publication date is 11th September 2025.
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