You hide them in precisely the same way you hide your success as a merchant, your skill with agriculture, your wisdom at politics and your innate cutting wit. Therefore it is more logical to make Ithaca the (somewhat dubious) capital of a string of western islands, including Kefalonia and Zakynthos, and thus justify Odysseus mattering at all by his control of the western seas. Passend zur Geschichte ist auch der Stil entsprechend Blumig, auch wenn Hera öfter mal eine F-Bomb einwirft. I can’t recommend Ithaca highly enough, especially to those who share my lifelong fascination with Greek myth. this novel doesnt really offer anything new to the story of penelope - its a faithful reiteration of the traditional tale.

And that given the period when these stories are set, there is also an interesting archaeological shift away from images of mother-goddesses, figures of raw female power that feature in so much of ancient history, towards a more ‘tamed’ female figure. But this is very much a rereadable book, so no doubt I will enjoy it again before the next installment is released.The presence of the Greek goddesses, each wielding their power over their devotees and their subtle manipulations, not to mention their limited interactions with one another makes for an interesting read. She managed to both utilize the classical modes of storytelling used by Homer and his contemporaries while subverting those same modes in ways both thoughtful and irreverent.

While the prose never reaches the epic quality that Madeline Miller does in The Song of Achilles and Circe, I enjoyed Hera's wit and found her an interesting narrator. It also shows how many women fought against their oppressors, some in stealthy and secretive ways and others in demonstrative and explosive ways. Like Penelope at her loom North both weaves and unweaves, teasing out the threads of Homeric myth to recombine them into something unique, wonderful and urgently contemporary -- M.

Through Hera’s eyes, we get the perspective of many women besides Penelope, including Clytemnestra, Elektra, and Penelope’s maids. Hera, being a god, can not only tell us what's going on in Ithaca and in her surroundings, but what is happening to Odysseus at the same time (she wryly gives us updates, most of which center on her sarcastic descriptions of him being so tortured about being sexily held prisoner on Ogygia with Calypso).

One line you have Hera telling you about someone, and right there appear a slave, a secondary character. The scraps of freedom that we have are to pick between two poisons, to make the least bad decision we can, knowing that there is no outcome that will not leave us bruised. There are main characters too, of course, who do have more onpage time, but Hera is fickle and arbitrarily decides who gets her attention best, favouring a character that's not Penelope.Hera was an absolute superb choice of narrator as she looks down upon Ithaca and has a view of all the plots that are unfolding. Ithaca by Claire North is the first book in a trilogy about Penelope’s Ithaca as she struggles to hold the kingdom together during Odysseus’ absence. North has penned a beautiful character study, offering a nuanced take on feminism, power dynamics and the identity of mothers. Das Tempo ist hier aber deutlich höher und ich konnte mit Ithaca deutlich mehr anfangen - aber auch weil ich die Odysseussage zumindest rudimentär kenne. Of course a good retelling of a tale needs to offer a new perspective and Claire North certainly delivers there; whereas in the Odyssey, Penelope, as a woman, has few methods of safeguarding her husband's property or of self defence, in "Ithaca" she not only employs her famous trick with her weaving, but also takes the rather more dramatic initiative in being involved with a group of clever, not to mention sassy, female rebels, who initially take a defensive approach, before training themselves to take up arms and fight.