So good! Like 4.5 stars really but wanted to remember how great it was even if it didn't break my soul. ( )

This is the second book in a trilogy by Claire North with an overall title of "The Songs of Penelope". I read the first book, Ithaca, in October last year, and enthused about how much I enjoyed this feminist re-telling of Greek myth and legend.

Each book in the trilogy is narrated in the first person by a different Greek goddess. In Ithaca it was the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. In the second book the narrator is the goddess Aphrodite, goddess of love. However, the books focus primarily on the character of Penelope, Odysseus' wife, left behind on Ithaca when her husband sailed off to Troy with the other Greek kings. They did so to fulfil an oath made to Menelaus, King of Sparta, to help him recover his beautiful wife Helen, taken to Troy by young Paris, a prince of that city. That was twenty years before this book begins, and the war has now been over for ten years, but Odysseus has not returned to Ithaca and is now widely presumed to be dead.

In his absence, his queen Penelope has been ably looking after her people on Ithaca while having to fend off a host of suitors for her hand in marriage, but who are more like parasites on her hospitality. Though she is not certain that Odysseus is alive, she refuses all their claims.

Life on Ithaca is not simple, however. Almost all of the island's adult men sailed with Odysseus to Troy and none returned. The island is therefore populated by old men and by fatherless youths only now reaching adulthood. And, of course, it is mostly populated by the women. Women who, strong and capable to begin with, have only become even stronger and more capable as time has passed.

In the first book, Penelope had to deal with pirates pillaging the towns of Ithaca. To counter these raids, Penelope secretly organised an army of women, armed largely with bows and knives, weapons easily explained away as just everyday tools for hunting and preparing meals.

Part-way through the first book, life for Penelope was severely disrupted by the arrival of Orestes and his sister Elektra, the children of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra not long after he returned from Troy, and Orestes and Elektra come to Ithaca believing, correctly, that their mother fled to the island where her cousin Penelope reigns. Towards the end of the first book, Orestes kills his mother at the urging of Elektra, a killing in which Penelope is at least partially complicit.

As House of Odysseus opens, two years have passed, and Elektra returns in secret to Ithaca, in charge of her brother, who appears to have been driven mad by his act of matricide and because he is spiritually being hounded by the Furies, three ancient deities of vengeance. Orestes, of course, is now King of Mycenae, but is in no fit state to be seen or to rule. In desperation to keep his condition secret, Elektra has taken him on what is claimed to be a pious pilgrimage to shrines and temples.

Then Menelaus, King of Sparta, arrives in pomp at Ithaca's port with a large contingent of Spartan soldiers. Though he puts on a great show of bonhomie and professes nothing but friendship and assistance to Penelope, he essentially takes over the island. He's in search of Orestes because if he can take charge of him, Menelaus will declare Orestes incompetent, act as his regent, and in practice become King of all Greece. Though Penelope makes a determined effort to hide Orestes and Elektra, it's not long before the Spartans find them and bring them to the palace.

Along with Menelaus and all his soldiers, of course, also comes the wife of Menelaus—Helen of Troy, now twenty years older than when she was taken to Troy, but still the most beautiful of women. Her behaviour, though, is that of an empty-headed bimbo, often drunk, treated contemptuously by her husband. But, as we eventually discover, there are depths to her.

Penelope, too, has depths to her. She is very clever, and she is determined to out-manoeuvre Menelaus. And she has her secret army of women to help her.

I really liked all of this, it's a very engaging story and by concentrating on the largely-ignored women of the ancient tales, the author gives a fascinating and very fresh look at those old stories. There's some lovely pieces of writing, too, such as Penelope's bracing, unsympathetic monologue delivered to Orestes when he is whimpering for forgiveness:

“You want forgiveness, Orestes? It will never come. So either crawl into your hole and shrivel now, die now, or seek repentance for doing the needful thing. Make your repentance your strength. Build life over the ashes of your butcher father, your murdered mother. Where Agamemnon slaughtered Iphigenia, raise a shrine for unmarried girls, a place of safety in her name. Where Clytemnestra slew Agamemnon, set up courts of justice to bring back harmony to your land. Where you slew Clytemnestra, cast libations into the sand and make upon those shores treaties of peace, an end to bloodshed. Someone must end this story. It may as well be you.”

My only reservation with this book, as it was with the first in the trilogy, is that I'm not sure that the narration by the various goddesses is really convincing. Here, particularly at the start of the book, I wasn't sure that the narration by the goddess Aphrodite worked well, though it does allow her to tell, from her point of view, the story of the Judgement of Paris, which ends up with Aphrodite promising to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, which of course turns out to be Helen “the face that launched a thousand ships”, and which precipitates the "breaking of the world" when the Trojan War ensues.

Despite that small reservation, I'm greatly looking forward to the third and final book in the trilogy, The Last Song of Penelope, in which Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca. I’m thinking he’s not going to be received with open arms by Penelope, no matter what the legend may say. ( )

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, although actually not as much as Ithaca. But it took me to the time and taught me some of the history. Well written and complex and worth rereading perhaps now along with Ithaca. ( )

The goddess Hera was the presiding Olympian presence in the first novel in this series, Ithaca. Here it is Aphrodite, goddess of love and desire, whose attention is focused on Penelope, her household, and her guests, those invited and uninvited, which include Menelaus and, especially, Helen, his wife, for whom the world broke itself apart before the gates of Troy. Helen is still beautiful, though it may take more time now before the silver mirror. And the mask she puts on may hide more than just a few minor blemishes. As ever, despite the bluster and noise of men like Menelaus and lesser men like Penelope’s unwanted suitors, it is the women on Ithaca who warrant our interest.

After the murder of Clytemnestra, Orestes and his sister, Elektra, flee to Ithaca pursued by the Harpies and a more sinister foe, poison. Orestes is being poisoned in such a way that he will appear to be mad. But even absconding from the heart of Mycenae has not freed them from these plagues. Can Penelope help? Especially now that Menelaus and his Spartan army of “protectors” have arrived to look after his blood brother Odysseus’ wife? Clearly Menelaus has designs on the Mycenaean throne. But what does Helen have to do with all this?

Once again Claire North brings ancient Greece to life. All of the women here are fascinating, strong and courageous, but none so wily as Penelope and, given half a chance, her cousin Helen. Whether in battle scenes or the even more dangerous battles at court, these women manoeuvre and strike, usually unseen and definitely unreported by the poets. Aphrodite is understandably a little bit in awe. As am I.

Recommended. ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: August 22, 2023

The second book in Clair North's Penelope trilogy this one picks up not long after the first, Ithaca. While Ithaca was narrated by a brutal Hera, this one is narrated by a hilarious and sassy Aphrodite; man are there some great quotes from her in this! It did take me a little while to get into the book but I was in a bit of a slump so that is either on me or I had to get used to the different narration style but once I did I was hooked!

The plotting and the maneuvering in this book! And the surprises! Looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy! ( )