Hello Readers,
I’m not saying I agree with all of Clytemnestra’s life
choices…But if my husband lied to me and sacrificed our daughter to a God while
telling me he was taking her to meet her new husband. I think I would have
spent 10 years plotting his death too.
I think Clytemnestra can be accredited as being one of first
villainesses in literature. Unlike medusa and the other gorgons, the vengeful goddess,
Clytemnestra is just a vengeful human woman. She is the only human villainesses
I can recall in Greek mythology; her identity is not hidden away by being a “monster”
or being a powerful goddess or mythical being. Clytemnestra is known for murdering
her husband, King Agamemnon, after he had fought in the Trojan war for ten
years. But that’s not her only link to the Trojan war she's the sister of Helen
of Troy.
Just like Medusa and Medea and many other women in Greek
myth, Clytemnestra is criticised without second thought “she’s a murderess” but
she is so much more than that. In this retelling, Costanza starts at the
beginning of Clytemnestra childhood, Starting with her early life as a Princess
of Sparta. Costanza shows Clytemnestra as a fiercely strong and protective
woman who will gladly defends her siblings. Clytemnestra was raised with the
training of a spartan warrior but had to live her life according to the notions
of men. From her tyrannical father her first husband, her forced marriage to
Agamemnon and her life as his wife and mother to his children and the events
that follow.
We see the trauma she suffers at Agamemnon hand; I know I
have given this spoiler away in the opening of this post, but after everything
she faced at the hands of Agamemnon. I think the sacrifice of her eldest
daughter so that Agamemnon’s ships could catch a wind to Troy was the final
straw. Clytemnestra endures and perseveres through abuse, loss, and grief,
including the senseless murder of her first husband and infant son. It’s not
hard to picture why she plotted revenge and took it when the chance was offered.
I love how we got to see Clytemnestra at different stages
of her life. She could easily have been described as conniving, or a bitter
woman scorned once again. But Costanza shows us how Clytemnestra occasionally
crumbled and at times hardened, but always battled her way through. Clytemnestra
is a woman of dimension there is no denying that she is conniving but she’s
also fierce and strong and resilient. She was a powerful woman in a world that
didn't want her to be one.
This is Costanza debut novel, and it is a brilliant first
book. The fact that Costanza manages to humanise a woman who can be called the
first villainess is a compliment to her writing style. The writing is beautiful
and fascinating and laced with mythology that hook’s you in. Costanza helps us
as the reader understand the vilified Queen and her motivations through her knowledge
of the ancient Greeks and ancient Greek literature. As this book follows Clytemnestra
from childhood to adulthood there is a lot of time covered in this book so
there are some time jumps but Costanza manages to show us the significant
events that shaped Clytemnestra into the fierce and vengeful character she is
known to be. Without it getting over
complicated and muddy and it doesn’t detract from the overall story.
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