Ariadne: The Mesmerising Sunday Times Bestselling Retelling of Ancient Greek Myth

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I would be Medusa... if the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a mans actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes and the world would shrink for me instead.” I really enjoyed the exploration of Pasiphae especially with the birth of Asterion, the Minotaur. It was great to explore this motherhood and how both of the sisters saw different sides of their mother when growing up. An adaptation of the narrative of Ariadne appears in the novel Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa. This was possibly my most anticipated read of 2021 and it was everything I hoped for and more. I devoured this book in a few days and dropped all my other books to focus solely on this one. I was invested in the sisters stories: both Ariadne and Phaedra, how they survived in a world where men and Gods rule.

This intricately plotted novel draws on a number of Greek myths, chief among them those found in Aeschylus’s Oresteia. It is the story of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, beginning with the brutal sacrifice of their 16-year-old daughter, Iphigenia. A deeply human tale of a warring family, the story is steeped in violence and cruelty but Tóibín brings empathy and depth to the characters, offering a nuanced understanding of their anger, fear, hatred and guilt. Ariadne betrayed her father and her country for her lover Theseus. She eloped with Theseus after he killed the Minotaur, yet according to Homer in the Odyssey "he had no joy of her, for ere that, Artemis slew her in seagirt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus". The phrase "seagirt Dia" refers to the uninhabited island of Dia, which lies off the northern coast of the Greek island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. Dia may have referred to the island of Naxos.This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, providing citations to reliable, secondary sources, rather than simply listing appearances. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( December 2017) In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to risk everything for love ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition? a b "LacusCurtius • Diodorus Siculus — Book V Chapters 47‑84". penelope.uchicago.edu . Retrieved 2023-05-20. The entire book felt like you were holding your breath, on the edge, waiting for something to happen, waiting for that moment to start caring for the characters or be stunned by an amazing plot point, just for none of that to occur.

For example on the mirror engraving reproduced in Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, Etruscan Myths, The Legendary Past series, University of Texas/British Museum, 2006, fig. 25, p. 41.Ariadne realizes that there is a darker side to the stories of gods and men. Discuss some examples from the novel that bear this out. Is there still a tendency in our culture to valorize men while ignoring women's pain? Daedalus is idolized by Ariadne and Phaedra when they are children, and in many ways he seems to be one of the few admirable male characters in this novel. How is he different from the other men and gods we encounter? What role does he play in the story? Can we trust Ariadne and Phaedra's positive account of him? Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1838). "poem". The New Monthly Magazine, 1838, Volume 52. Henry Colburn. p.79. I think this was a book about sisterhood, love, affection and the way we can grow away from our siblings but can't really grow apart from them. There are variations to the myth regarding Ariadne’s fate and I actually enjoyed the author’s interpretation and how the story ended. Ariadne Book Review: Summary

With Ariadne, Jennifer Saint gives voice to the titular princess of Crete, known mostly as a side character in the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, placing her at the centre of her own story for once. The concept has been trialled and tested in Circe, The Silence of the Girls and A Thousand Ships, but Ariadne’s story is one that lends itself perfectly to the same treatment, as even in her original story she’s a female character with a lot of agency. As the brains behind Theseus heroic rescue operation, Ariadne dares to spin the threads of her own faith and stand strong and tall in a world ruled by man, Gods and monsters. The exploration of the darker side of the Dionysian cult was quite good but I felt the ending was incredibly rushed and the chance to show Perseus as a completely different kind of hero was lost. Because Saint did a great job of characterising the male villains. We'd had the cruel ruler Minos, the ladies man and fame hound Theseus, then the immortal reveller Dionysus, followed by the austere horse lover Hippolytus (less a villain, more a simpleton), it was a chance for us to finally get a middle of the road hero who was strong but also a good ruler. I know Saint tried to imply that Perseus and Ariadne unravelled all of that with a single glance but I don't think it worked. I also think the handling of the final showdown was poor. Dionysus is supposed to be welcomed to the city after the death of Ariadne through a deal brokered by Hermes. I feel like that would have been a strong point to make again about how women are the collateral damage in so many of these Greek myths but Saint didn't seem to want to take that route. Saint’s immersive novel thrusts the reader straight into the heart of Greek mythology with this wonderful reimagining of the story of Ariadne.’– iPaperThe author did a great job of introducing other tales within the main story. We learn about how Medusa became a monster and what drove Icarus to fly too close to the sun. I really enjoyed the opening chapters about the Minotaur and how he came to be the monstrous beast he was known to be. But...even though I think Ariadne didn't have the same impact on me Circe had...I still enjoyed it so much. It's been beautiful overall and, after careful consideration, it also deserved an almost 5-star rating. Which translates into a 5-star rating here, on Goodreads!