Book Review: Ariadne, Jennifer Saint
Book Review: Ariadne, Jennifer Saint
Book of 2023: 3
My rating: 3 /5 stars
Read: 11 - 29/04/2023
As Princesses of Crete and daughters of King Minos, Ariadne and Phaedra grow up hearing the terrible bellow of the Minotaur from the labyrinth. The Minotaur - Minos’ greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother - demands blood every year.
When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls for him. But helping Theseus defeat the monster means betraying her family, and Ariadne knows that in a world ruled by mercurial gods, drawing their attention can cost you everything.
Ariadne has heard too many tales of women being punished for the acts of men - she is determined to set her own fate. But will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition?
I bought this one in Bath last year, and then accidentally got myself another copy (fancy hardback ooooh) in a book exchange. I finally got around to reading it.
Ariadne is a feminist retelling of Greek myth. One I knew partly - Theseus and the Minotaur - but not a lot, so it was really cool to deep dive into the story a little more. Whilst I was aware there would be changes made to enhance the story for a new audience and perspective.
Some versions of the myth vary:
Theseus abandons Ariadne and thus she dies by suicide, but Dianoysus brings her back from Hades to Mount Olympus
Theseus takes her to Naxos but leaves her to die, where Dionysus rescues her
Perseus mortally wounds her
Dionysus appears to Theseus and instructs him to leave her on Naxos for him
Artemis kills Ariadne
Athena leads Theseus to his ship, away from Ariadne
No matter which version you follow, you’ll find a story of the daughters of Minos and Pasiphae, whose fates are unchangingly in the hands of men.
The novel has a lot of wonderful writing, with some vivid and beautiful descriptions of the setting and the characters Ariadne and Phaedra encounter. A lot of this book felt like I was telling rather than showing at times, which was frustrating, but for the most part Saint creates an evocative picture of Crete and Greece.
The start of the novel contains a lot of exposition, getting some back story in so we can understand why Ariadne is where she is, why the minotaur came to being, who her family is; the world of the Gods. This made getting stuck in a little difficult, because there wasn’t much happening, or moving the story forward. Eventually, though, we arrive at Ariadne’s present.
From the second half, we have a dual perspective. Half of the chapters are with Ariadne on Naxos, and the other with Phaedra in Athens. The two of their lives exist in parallel, both at the mercy of their father, both neglected for the attention of the Minotaur, both at the hands of Theseus’ cowardly scheming, both having to bear the children of their husbands.
Even though this seems what Ariadne wants in the novel, she doesn’t seem to be so enthusiastic about it. Saint sort of describes the two women getting pregnant as something which happens to them. Which, to some extent, it is: ‘I thought I was dying, but the maenads were of a more practical bent than me and diagnosed my condition correctly. I was with child and this happy news briefly lightened the fog of exhaustion and sickness that clung to me.’ (240)
It’s frankly a hopeless existence for all the women in this novel, which I guess is sort of the point. The world Saint highlights is one where the women are doing their best to survive in the world ruled by men and Gods.
I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself. (229)
Overall, I enjoyed seeing a new version of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, seeing multiple tales of Greek mythology swirl together: Icarus, Perseus, Medusa, Dionysus.
I want to read more Greek mythology, not necessarily by Saint, but I did enjoy this novel.
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