Clytemnestra

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She has a degree in journalism from Napier University and, in preparation for writing her novels, gained a diploma in classical studies from the Open University. Costanza Casati renders a singularly vibrant Ancient Greece, absolutely alive with emotion and suspense. An ominous scene introduces the Spartan princess as she peers into a ravine rumored to be the repository of the remains of dead infants. Following, fairly faithfully, to the works of Aeschylus, the author takes these Greek mythology tales and gives us a historical fiction feeling story that colors in all those spaces between the better known highlights, such as the Trojan War.

But when her husband casts his ruthless gaze towards the wealthy citadel of Troy, his ambitions threaten to once more destroy the family Clytemnestra loves. If you are a fan of Circe, The Song of Achilles, Ariadne, A Thousand Ships, or Elektra, I can just about guarantee that you will connect with this book, too.

I also have a love for any book that takes a misunderstood figure, real or fictional, hero or villain, and gives said figure more dimension, showing a different side of their often well-known story.

I loved seeing her as a ferociously devoted sister and mother, a woman who cared about women and was willing to be seen as a villain.She is then forced to marry Agamemnon, and during this unhappy marriage they have three children: Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes.

The narrative follows Clytemnestra from her early life as a Princess of Sparta, her relationship with her siblings, her subsequent marriage to her first husband and the tragic events that lead to her marriage to Agamemnon and her life as his wife and mother to his children and the events that follow. In Casati’s beautifully worded prose, knowledge of the tragedies that await Clytemnestra is not a prerequisite, although readers who are in the know will find this only adds to the dramatic tension as events unfold. This book does a fabulous job of taking the reader to the time and place and bringing all the stories alive.A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece and told through the eyes of its greatest heroine. They will sing of her mother, the queen seduced by a god, of her brothers, boxers and horse-breakers, of her sister, a woman so vain who couldn’t stay in her husband’s bed, of Agamemnon, the proud lion of Mycenae, of the wise, many-minded Odysseus, of the treacherous, cursed Aegisthus, of Clytemnestra, cruel queen and unfaithful wife.

When we meet Clytemnestra, she is a young princess of Sparta; a hunter and fighter who is close to her family, especially to her sister, Helen, the famed beauty who later flees for Troy. She was a powerful woman in a world that didn't want her to be one, and so her lot in life was to never be provided with an easy path to her goals. The pacing here was very well done; for an over 400 page book on such a familiar story, I never felt as if it were dragging in any way. This well written take on Greek mythology follows Clytemnestra, the daughter of the Spartan king and the wife of Agamemnon.Queen Clytemnestra's world shatters when Agamemnon, a rival to the throne of Mycenae, storms her palace, destroys her family and claims not only the throne but Clytemnestra herself.