A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

The Iliad and The Odyssey stand at the fountainhead of Western literature. They are generally held to be the oldest surviving works, and were originally composed in the oral tradition. Indeed, such is their antiquity that they have fostered their own legends, with both poems being ascribed to the blind minstrel Homer. As a consequence, their stories, seem immensely familiar, and one might almost be tempted to wonder whether there is anything to be gained by a new retelling. They are, however, less familiar than we might at first venture to think. 

The Iliad does not directly relate the whole ten-year siege and eventual overthrow of Troy following the abduction of Helen by Paris, but focuses instead upon an eight-week period throughout the greater part of which Achilles, most ferocious and valiant of the Greeks, is sulking in his tent following an argument with Agamemnon. There are, of course, frequent digressions or apostrophes during the tale, in which we learn of earlier episodes, or hear prophesies of what might yet come, and there is an overwhelming sense of inevitability of the eventual fall of Troy, even though that lies beyond the span of the poem.

The Odyssey focuses on the travails of Odysseus as he struggled to make his way home to Ithaca after Troy has fallen. That journey takes him a further ten years, lasting as long as the siege of Troy, and, as he voyages throughout the whole known world, he is pitched into one potentially fatal encounter after another. 

There has been a recent crop of novels revisiting the Greek legends, and particularly to retell them from a female perspective. Most notable among these has been The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, which recounted the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon as seen by Briseis. That approach was very successful, resulting in a powerful recasting of the story, and highlighting the appalling atrocities committed against women (and the general acceptance of that as usage du monde). In A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes has taken this to a further dimension, offering not just the perspective of one specific woman, but rather giving voice to all the women involved in the story, even including Calliope, the muse of poetry who is regularly implored by Homer for inspiration in the narration of the story.

Natalie Haynes has made a career out of celebrating the classics. Her previous novels include The Amber Fury, in which a drama teacher reaches out to the dysfunctional teenagers at a pupil referral unit in Edinburgh through the enduring power of ancient Greek drama, although with unlooked for consequences reminiscent of the tragedy in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. The Children of Jocasta retells the gruesome tragedy of Oedipus from the perspective of Jocasta and Antigone. A Thousand Ships takes the form of a series of narratives, either recounted by, or focusing on, different female characters, across the whole span of the story. In addition to throwing an entirely different perspective on the relentless cruelties of the Trojan War, it also serves as a useful vehicle to allow the focus to move in time and space, mirroring the non-linear structure of the Homeric epics. 

She is also adept at striking markedly different tones. Calliope becomes increasingly frustrated with the constant cries from Homer for guidance, rolling her eyes as he hesitates about a key description. Meanwhile, Penelope writes a series of notes to Odysseus in which her impatience at his delayed return strengthen into anger, as rumours gradually filter through to Ithaca of his latest diversionary adventure. More than halfway through the book there is a very humorous interlude in which Athena recounts the fateful choice of Paris, missing no opportunity to disparage what she sees as the vacuity of her half sister Aphrodite, or the constantly seething ill temper of Hera. Shortly afterwards, in a short chapter that perfectly captures teenage sulkiness, Eris, goddess of discord, only half-remembers provoking the argument between the three goddesses.

Haynes is clearly immensely knowledgeable about the Latin and Greek classics, and is eager to spread that enthusiasm as widely as possible. Her writing is fresh, and flexible – she adopts many different voices throughout the book, but never once allows her clever structure to obscure the clarity of the story.

This review originally appeared on Goodreads.