Review: Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

There is no peace for a woman with ambition 

Known as the daughter of King Tyndareus and Leda, twin sister of Helen, princess of Sparta, and eventual wife of Agamemnon and Queen of Mycenae, Clytemnestra has been portrayed as a schemer and murderer. Following, fairly faithfully, to the works of Aeschylus, the author takes these Greek mythology tales and gives us a historical fiction feeling story that colors in all those spaces between the better known highlights, such as the Trojan War. I enjoyed how this take stripped away the more mythology fantasy elements and focused on seeing these characters from their mortal human sides. 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. 

Is this what happens when one falls in love and marries? Clytemnestra wonders. Is this what a woman gives up? All her life she has been taught courage, strength, resilience, but must those qualities be kept at bay with a husband? 

Divided up into five parts, the first starts off with a movie 300 like scene of Clytemnestra hunting a lynx and showing how she was raised in Sparta. It lays the ground work for how Clytemnestra will think further on in the story, her warrior mentality and always seeing herself on equal footing with men. The family dynamics of her mother drinking away her pain, closeness with siblings, and how it does seem that Clytemnestra is their father's favorite. Clytemnestra's, probably more known, sister Helen, also features predominately, which does make sense as the Trojan War plays a large role. Part one ends with Clytemnestra marrying for love. 

“You must learn your place among men, Clytemnestra,” he says. His words are whips, slashing at her hurting throat. “You are too proud, too arrogant.” 

Part two starts with Clytemnestra pregnant and her husband gone back to his kingdom to prepare them for her arrival. It also gives us the arrival of brothers Menelaus and Agamemnon, they lost their kingdom to a traitor and are looking for help from Sparta. This part shows how Agamemnon wants Clytemnestra and the underling sense of trouble brewing for our lead character Clytemnestra, but not to be missed, is how his brother Menelaus wants Helen and when she picks him as her husband, the other rejected men were forced to agree to a pact to support whoever she picked as husband. A pact that obviously comes back to play a huge part in why Greece went to war. We also get an introduction to Odysseus and his eventual romance with Clytemnestra's cousin Penelope, you've maybe heard of them? This part ends with the murder of Clytemnestra's husband and baby and her marriage to Agamemnon. Since the family dynamics were so well explored in the first part, the betrayal from Clytemnestra's father is really felt and how this immediately and in the future affects the whole family. 

She gazes at Agamemnon and says, “I do not forget.” 

Part three jumps fifteen years and we're in Mycenae with Clytemnestra and her four children. There's no love in her marriage but Clytemnestra does what she needs to in order to survive, she's strong and works with Agamemnon to rule the kingdom but you can feel the hatred in her that she keeps on simmer and always seemingly ready to boil. I thought it was interesting of the author to put little subtleties in where the reader gets the impression that Agamemnon does love Clytemnestra but he does it in such a selfish way, the whole killing her first husband and child because he wanted her. It added a layer to Agamemnon that improved the story, instead of just keeping him a one dimensional brute. Clytemnestra's father dies and she goes back to Sparta and we get updates on her siblings and at 56% Paris arrives in Sparta. Helen of Troy comes to fruition and we get our war. Part three ends with the sacrifice of Clytemnestra's daughter Iphigenia by Agamemnon by order of a priest so they can appease the gods and you can feel the simmering in Clytemnestra's gut boil throughout her body. 

He desired her strength because it was a challenge to him. He wished to bend her to his own will, break her. He wanted to show he was stronger by subjugating her. Some men can be like that.

Part four starts with letters from Clytemnestra's family to her about the murder of her daughter and the reader gets a glimpse of how Clytemnestra mourned, not eating, not sleeping, raging, wanting to kill herself. Her personal guard, Leon, gets her through it, along with her other children and we jump nine years. With Helen getting some focus, it felt like a lot of lead up to the Trojan War and I was a little surprised how the story mostly skips the action of it, we get the highlights, Achilles, Odysseus' horse, but mostly the 10yrs is blew by. Clytemnestra used the time to solidify her ruling in Mycenae and the traitor to Agamemnon and his brother, Aegisthus, shows up and Clytemnestra and him start an affair. 

A woman can't afford to close her eyes for long. 

The last part has Clytemnestra abandoned by her long time guard Leon because of her affair with Aegisthus and her daughter Electra hating her and her son Orestes emitting some of those brewing danger feelings. Agamemnon comes home after victory in the Trojan War and Clytemnestra uses all those harbored inner boiling emotions and acts on them. After traveling with Clytemnestra through all she endured, it was a satisfactory scene. Again, I enjoyed how this take muted the fantastical mythological elements and focused on the mortal human character emotions and actions. Clytemnestra grew up learning how to physically fight and eventually had to learn how to hide and when to show her strengths because of being a woman in a man's society. The character's strength, knowing how she's seen, cruel and unfaithful, but holding onto her inner truth showed beautifully strong. Clytemnestra is a character I think gets overshadowed by her sister and the war, I'm glad this iteration colored her in and hushed the gods in favor of her agency.

As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her better. Let her be hated forever.

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