In this novel, Claire Heywood manages to make the sisters into flawed women, trying to live their lives the best they can. And her sister Klytemnestra – famous for murdering her husband – is often similarly pigeonholed due to a single moment in her legendary life, missing all the other moments that led to this one. Traditionally she is reduced merely to her beauty, when really, she should be presented as a woman in her own right, making decisions that have repercussions rippling across all of Ancient Greece and Troy. I’ve always wanted to know more about Helen – who is such a catalyst in the Homerian epic, but such a passive figure without a voice of her own. OPINIONS: Daughters of Sparta is extremely compelling. Their duty is now to give birth to the heirs society demands and be the meek, submissive queens their men expect.īut when the weight of their husbands’ neglect, cruelty and ambition becomes too heavy to bear, they must push against the constraints of their sex to carve new lives for themselves – and in doing so make waves that will ripple throughout the next three thousand years. While still only girls they are separated and married off to legendary foreign kings Agamemnon and Menelaos, never to meet again. Such privilege comes at a high price, though, and their destinies are not theirs to command. With their high birth and unrivalled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece.
An utterly spellbinding historical yarn.SUMMARY: As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. Readers intimately familiar with the mythology and those new to this classic story alike will find themselves breathlessly turning the pages as Heywood unspools the tragic consequences of Helen’s actions and the horrific sacrifice Klytemnestra is forced to make. She and her father settle on Menelaus, Agamemnon’s brother, but after the harrowing birth of her daughter, Helen starts to pull away from her husband, setting off a chain of events that culminates in her absconding with the handsome knave Paris and igniting the Trojan War. Helen is anointed the heir instead, in part as cover for her dubious parentage, and suitors from all over the realm show up to compete for her hand. Klytemnestra, the elder, expects to be the heir to the Spartan throne, so she’s shocked when her father decides to marry her off to Agamemnon of Mycenae, which will separate her from her family. Heywood introduces them as girls, daughters of the king of Sparta, who already know at a young age that they have important destinies. Heywood’s engrossing first novel follows the fortunes of two of the most famous women in the ancient world, the sisters and princesses Klytemnestra and Helen, renowned for her exquisite beauty.
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