Clytemnestra

Product Information

Invigorating, addictive, emotional, dramatic, and stunning are just a few words I can find to describe this gem. For fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious villainess of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen. This is a woman who was prepared to wait to get even; she could have created the phrase that revenge is a dish best served cold. An ominous scene introduces the Spartan princess as she peers into a ravine rumored to be the repository of the remains of dead infants.

I’m also a follower of Natalie Haynes, Jennifer Saint and Madeline Miller—I love ancient Greek myth, history, literature and philosophy! Casati did such an excellent job making Clytemnestra come across as a living, breathing woman, I wanted revenge for her as much as she did. The thing I particularly enjoyed about this novel – and the thing that makes it different from others I’ve read – is that it focuses not just on Clytemnestra and Helen, whose stories are well known, but also on their other siblings.While she is not always likeable as a character, her life is definitely compelling and I am really pleased that there are two more books planned in this series. I don’t know if this is just an issue of popular tropes or what, but I love to read about a woman who is both wildly ambitious and devoted to her children and family.

The girls are thought to be born from a mortal mother and a god but their father, King Tyndareus, loving their mother for her fierceness, doubts Helen (her sister) as his child.

This book deconstructs Clytemnestra’s infamy and then, with tremendous empathy and wisdom, reconstructs her into an enthrallingly complex figure filled with passion and spirit. Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, is best known for her role during and after the Trojan War; but that war begins only halfway through the book, in which we first meet her when she was sixteen. Casati reveals a Clytemnestra we’ve never met before: fiercely intelligent, passionate, and loving – and willing to do anything to avenge the ones she loves. Deceived, raging and grieving, Clytemnestra plots her revenge against her husband, with the help of his nemesis and cousin Aegisthus.

Her first marriage and child are never forgotten — it’s something she remembers throughout the book, and especially with the birth of Orestes. In Costanza Casati’s story, we find all the good traits of a great woman, a wise woman, a worthy woman and readers need to read about this lesser told Spartan who we should have heard just as much, if not more than, her well known sister Helena. The novel is perfect for those interested in learning more about a misunderstood figure in Greek mythology, and Casati will be an author to watch in the years to come. Costanza Casati’s debut novel is a creative retelling of the life of Clytemnestra, a classical heroine of Greek mythology.

There will come a time when songs are sung about her, about the people she loved and the ones she hated. There are large time jumps — ranging from a few months to fifteen years — between sections of Clytemnestra’s story. I especially appreciated the vile depiction of Agamemnon, as I’ve always despised him in any story he in which he appears. Some of my favorite books of recent years have been Circe, Stone Blind, Ithaca, and Stephen Fry’s Mythos.

Clytemnestra doesn't necessarily believe in the Gods but subsequently finds her life impacted by them all the same because of the “Gods will” delivered through the all too human priestess and priests.

About the Author: Susan C Wilson has a degree in journalism from Edinburgh Napier University and a diploma in classical studies from the Open University. Her lifelong passion for ancient Greece was ignited as a child by stumbling across stories of gods and heroes in the dictionary. Like other Spartan women, Clytemnestra and her sisters are taught to fight, run and wrestle as children and grow up enjoying more independence and freedom than women elsewhere in Ancient Greece.