A Thousand Ships is a novel of sorts. It tells the story of the battle of Troy from the point of view of the women. This is not a completely new idea: Pat Barker did the same in her 2018 work The Silence of the Girls. Barker’s approach emphasized the violence of the men and the comradeship of the women. It was emotionally powerful but also hard work to read, since there wasn’t much to balance the unthinking misogyny of the men. 

Hayne’s work is broader than Barker’s, including more of the myths about women and some she made up herself. It shifts around in time, starting just at the end of the Trojan war, and going back and forth, and from person to person. More fundamentally, it does more to portray the women as strong, the equal of the men in cunning, intellect and passion, if not in strength. Her stories include both gods and mortals. It is also funnier.

Haynes, a British author and journalist, has written several books on the classics, both novels and non-fiction. Her most recent book, Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, has been released in the UK but not the US. She has also done a successful BBC Radio 4 series of stand up comedy about Greek and Roman culture, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. She performs A Thousand Ships herself for the unabridged audiobook, which is good since she does an excellent job, keeping a steady tone but also giving the women a good deal of character.

The book is more of a collection of stories rather than a novel, since it doesn’t have central characters it follows all the way through. The stories will especially appeal to those already familiar with the Greek myths, since they turn them on their head. In The Odyssey, we learn that the king Agamemnon, leader of all the Greeks, was killed by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. But in Haynes’ version, it is Clytemnestra herself who kills her husband, and she planned for years, while her husband was busy at Troy. It is vengeance for Agamemnon sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia to a goddess Artemis. Clytemnestra resolves that her husband must die for this, and nothing he could do would change her mind. But she is even more resolved in her action when he returns victorious from Troy and does not even apologize for what he did. This story converts Clytemnestra from a scheming wife under the influence of another man to a powerful and righteous woman. 

There are many such moments in A Thousand Ships. Another wonderful part of the book is the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope. Penelope writes a series of bitter letters to Odysseus who takes ten years to return from Troy to her in Ithaca, a journey which should take just a few months at most. In these letters she comments on the songs of the bards who tell the tales of her husband, peppering them with acerbic observations. It’s easy to share her scorn for her husband. 

Traditionalists may frown on the liberties Haynes takes with these venerated myths to give her version. But A Thousand Ships is a wonderful retelling of the Greek myth bringing it into contemporary context. It is comparable to Madeline Miller’s superb retelling of the story of Circe, but distinctive in its style. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews

Categories: Fiction

Keywords: Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, women