The flow continues of retellings of Ancient Greek religion and myths such as from Homer's epic poems recorded near 3,000 years ago. It is over a decade since American author Madeline Miller penned her novel, The Song of Achilles (Bloomsbury, 2011), winner of The Orange Women's Prize of Fiction, a reinterpretation of Homer's Trojan War in The Iliad. Mortal man Achilles is the son of Thetis, a Nereid sea nymph goddess, and a mortal King, Peleus. Achilles' immortal grandparents are Oceanus, a Titan god, and Doris, an Oceanid sea nymph goddess. The Titans were the earlier gods before Zeus' era. It is because of Achilles' divine heritage and upbringing that he is famously the greatest warrior to ever live.
The imagining of the ancient Greek legends from the female characters and by female authors is also still going strong. Margaret Atwood may have begun the recent resurgence with The Penelopiad (Canongate, 2005) about Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, Greek warrior lord. Twelve maids (or house slaves) also have voices in Atwood's novella, who were put to death by Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey, for laying with the men who moved into his Lord's manor as guests, and tried to persuade, even force, Penelope to remarry in his 20-year absence.
Madeline Miller's 2018 book Circe gave the goddess a fresh voice who Odysseus meets on his epic voyage sailing home after the Trojan war. The drama is whether he escapes Circe's island because she is a powerful sorceress. Circe is the daughter of the Sun god Helios (a Titan) who married Oceanid sea nymph goddess, Perse. Circe is the granddaughter of four Titan gods, Oceanus and Thethys, Hyperion and Theia. Circe's great uncle is Cronus, King of the Titans and father of Zeus who reins after him. Both Archilles and Odysseus lived in the same exciting and dangerous times.
In 2023, fiction inspired by Ancient Greek myths continues to be created anew. What draws us back after so much 'sands of time'? So many characters with god-like powers, and those wielding power can be benevolent or malicious to the world of men and women whose own lives were full of violence or comfort, good fortune or disaster. The makings of great drama with high stakes.
Here are my favourite book covers of 2023 in Greek mythical fiction.
I love golden print and British author Claire North's covers are striking by Redhook, an imprint of Hachette. Ithaca (2022), House of Odysseus: Book 2 (2023) and The Last Song Of Penelope: Book 3 (2024) are set on the Ionian island of Ithaca where Greek warrior Odysseus' family lived. In Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, after the ten-year Trojan war Odysseus longs to return home but ends up thwarted by supernatural challenges for another ten years on his Mediterranean voyage.
More gorgeous gilt in the cover of Clytemnestra (Penguin, 2023) by American debut author Costanza Casati. Clytemnestra, a daughter of a Spartan King, is the wife of the leader who unites the Greek tribes against the Trojans, Agamemnon, son of the King of Mycenae, of Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, written approximately 800 B.C. Clytemnestra's sister, Helen, the most beautiful high-born woman in the land, is stolen (or elopes) with Paris, the handsome Prince of Troy but Helen was already married to Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus (hence the war).
An Ancient Greek dramatist, Aeschylus, writes a play 400 years after Homer, featuring Clytemnestra, where she murders her husband, Agamemnon, who was away for 10 years in the Trojan war. In the meantime, she has had her own challenges and triumphs as a Queen with an absent husband. Plus, her husband kills their daughter, Iphigeneia, as a religious sacrifice to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and the wilderness. This novel is a less incriminating version of Clytemnestra than those told thousands of years ago when even Queens were the property of their husbands and held no property of their own, being captive in a gilded cage.
Australian writer and awarded poet, Elyse John, has released her first novel, Orphia and Eurydicius (Harper Collins, 2023). The names, Orphia and Eurydicius, are inspired by the ancient characters of Orpheus and Eurydice whose love turns tragic, first mentioned by Greek poet Ibycus who lived a few hundred years after Homer.
In the myth, Orpheus is a mortal with a god-given charming lyre to play as the son of Apollo, and grandson of the gods Zeus and Leto. Orpheus' mother is one of the nine immortal muses, Calliope, muse of epic poetry and eloquence. Calliope is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Orpheus marries Eurydice, a divine Nereid water nymph, and one of 50 daughters of 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid sea nymph, Doris. There were thousands of nature-loving nymphs who lived among mortals and those remembered had children to gods including King of the Gods, Zeus.
Author Else John flips the character roles and Orphia is instead a daughter of Sun god Apollo and Eurydicius is a shield-maker whose masculinity appears to not typify of the Ancient Greek archetype.
"Orphia dreams of something more than the warrior crafts she’s been forced to learn. Hidden away on a far-flung island, her blood sings with poetry and her words can move flowers to bloom and forests to grow… but her father, the sun god Apollo, has forbidden her this art...When Eurydicius joins her, Orphia struggles with her desire for fame and her budding love. As her bond with the gentle shield-maker grows, she joins the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece." - www.elsejohn.com
“Vivid, consuming, potent, and poetic. This gender-flipping, feminist retelling is not just a love story for the ages, but a moving, magical ode to the power of using our voices, and of being who we are in the world.” - Holly Ringland, bestselling author of The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding.
This year, Jennifer Saint has released Atlanta (2023), after Elektra (2022) and Ariadne (2021). All three covers catch my eye even though the golden gilt is lessening with each published book by Headline, an imprint of Hachette.
"Atalanta was a woman from Greek mythology, suckled by a bear and raised by hunters after her father, disappointed that he did not have a son instead, left her on a mountaintop as an infant. She became a great hunter and athlete and was later accepted by her father, who wanted her to get married. Having been warned against marriage by an oracle, Atalanta devised a plan whereby she could avoid it: she agreed to marry anyone who could beat her in a foot race, but suitors who lost would be killed. This did not discourage them, however. After many victories, Atalanta was beaten by Hippomenes with the aid of Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love (and married him)." - The Brooklyn Museum.
"Electra (Greek for Bright One) is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who saved the life of her young brother Orestes by sending him away when their father was murdered. When he later returned, she helped him to slay their mother and their mother’s lover, Aegisthus. Electra then married Orestes’ friend Pylades." - Britannica.
"Ariadne is daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan king Minos. She fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus and, with a thread or glittering jewels, helped him escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur, a beast half bull and half man that Minos kept in the Labyrinth. Here the legends diverge: she was abandoned by Theseus and hanged herself; or, Theseus carried her to Naxos and left her there to die, and she was rescued by and married the god Dionysus." - Britannica.
Natalie Haynes, a broadcaster, writer, and stand-up comedian has published with Pan Macmillan numerous witty novels (and one non-fiction book) about women of ancient times:
* Divine Might (2023) about the goddesses of Olympus,
* Stone Blind (2022) about the goddess Medusa whose stare turned men to stone,
* Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (2020) is non-fiction,
* A Thousand Ships (2019) the Greeks sailed to Troy for a war to right a wrong and,
* The Children of Jocasta (2017), Jocasta was the Queen of Thebes in the family drama written by Sophocles 2,400 years ago.
Harper Perrenial has published two fabulous covers for Natalie Haynes' best sellers. Divine Might features all the most famous goddesses around Zeus; his wife Hera, and his daughters Athene, Aphrodite and Demeter. Pandora's Jar is non-fiction about the myths like that of mortal woman Pandora whose curiosity brings the worst upon the world. Natalie has worked in British radio for over 20 years and her author bio. notes 'she has written and performed eight series of her BBC Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. In 2015, she was awarded the Classical Association Prize for her work in bringing Classics to a wider audience.'
Last but not least is a viral comic Lore Olympus by New Zealand graphic artist, Rachel Smythe, that was published gradually since 2018 as a webtoon to huge aclaim. In 2023, Volume 4 and 5 have been published in print by Random House.
That is my vote on the best book covers of 2023 in Greek mythical fiction. The question now is which book to read first! In the meantime, they will beautify your living spaces with affordable art.
References:
Britannica.com , 2023.
Booktopia.com.au , 2023.
webtoons.com , 2023.