Category: | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

Kendare Blake

Like several other recent novels for young adults, including Aimee Carter’s The Goddess Test (2011) and Bree Despain’s Into the Dark series, Kendare Blake’s Antigoddess explores the premise that ancient gods have survived into the modern age. Ranging across both urban and natural landscapes of the United States, the novel is focalised through Athena, who is accompanied by her brother, Hermes. The pair resemble modern teenagers: Hermes wears jeans and a tight t-sh(...)

literary

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Andromache Aphrodite Apollo Athena/ Athene Cassandra Circe Demeter Hector Hera Hermes Monsters Odysseus/ Ulysses Odyssey Poseidon Trojan War Troy

Alan Lee, Rosemary Sutcliff

Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of The Iliad

Published posthumously in the year following her death, Sutcliff’s Black Ships Before Troy purports to be a retelling of the Iliad, but in fact begins much earlier than Homer’s poem, with the story of the Golden Apple and the Judgment of Paris, and concludes with the Wooden Horse and the Fall of Troy. There are nineteen chapters, followed by a Pronunciation Guide and Bibliography. "The Golden Apple" describes the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and Paris’ decision (...)

literary

YEAR: 1993

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Achilles Agamemnon Amazons Andromache Aphrodite Athena/ Athene Hector Helen Hera Menelaus Odysseus/ Ulysses Paris Patroclus Priam Trojan Horse (wooden) Trojan War Troy Zeus

Joan Holub, Suzanne Williams

Goddess Girls (Series, Book 12): Cassandra the Lucky

Cassandra is the daughter of Trojan royally Priam and Hecuba. Along with her twin brother Helenus, she has the gift of foreseeing the future, and sell the fortunes as fortune cookies. Yet there is a problem with Cassandra’s prophecies: Prophecies no one ever believed, unfortunately, despite their truth. Instead she was widely considered to be a liar—(49-50). This was the result of a curse Apollo put on her when they were both little. Cassandra decides to send fortunes to Mount Olympu(...)

literary

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Agamemnon Andromache Aphrodite Apollo Artemis Athena/ Athene Cassandra Eros Hector Hecuba Helenus Heracles / Herakles Hercules Hermes Homer Laodice Medusa Odysseus/ Ulysses Pandora Persephone Pheme Poseidon Priam Zeus

Clemence McLaren

Inside the Walls of Troy: A Novel of the Women Who Lived the Trojan War

This novel tells the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of Helen and Cassandra. The first third is narrated in first person by Helen, and tells of her abduction by Theseus, her realisation of the power of her own beauty, her marriage to Menelaus and the birth of her daughter Hermione. Helen is a sweet and pleasure loving girl who somewhat reluctantly persuades herself to be the dutiful wife to Menelaus. She is close to her less beautiful older cousin Penelope, but becomes angry when sh(...)

literary

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Achilles Agamemnon Andromache Cassandra Hector Hecuba Helen Helenus Laodice Menelaus Odysseus/ Ulysses Penelope Priam Theseus

Margot McGovern

Neverland

When seventeen-year-old orphan Kit Learmonth tries to commit suicide by slashing her wrists in the swimming pool of her prestigious boarding school, her uncle takes her back to her childhood home to recuperate. Before her parents drowned in an accident at sea when she was ten, Kit grew up on an idyllic island owned for generations by her wealthy, infamous family. Though its official name is Learmonth Island, everyone refers to it as Neverland. In Kit’s mind, it is a place of magic and adve(...)

literary

YEAR: 2018

COUNTRY: Australia

TAGS: Andromache Charybdis Hector Homer Iliad Mermaids Metamorphosis Monsters Odysseus/ Ulysses Odyssey Ovid Ovid Metamorphoses Plato Plato's cave Sappho Scylla Selkies Sirens Virgil

Sulari Gentill

The Hero Trilogy (Series, Book 3): The Blood of Wolves

The Blood of Wolves finds the young Hero and her adopted brothers, Machaon, Lycon and Cadmus back on the slopes of Mt Ida. The arrival of one of the Trojan refugees who left with Aeneas after Troy’s fall soon sets them and their guardian wolf Lupa on another long journey. This time all the Herdsmen leave, as Pan warns that Ida will soon fall to its land-hungry neighbours. They go to find a new home for themselves and to help Aeneas, who they are told has been imprisoned on Crete; their adv(...)

literary

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: Australia

TAGS: Acestes Achaemenides Achilles Aeneas Alcippe Anchises Andromache Anna Ariadne Astyanax Celaeno Dido Euryalus Harpies Hector Ilioneus Iulus Latinus Lavinia Minos (King) Minotaur Nausicaa Neoptolemus Nisus Palinarus Pan Pasiphae Patroclus Penthesilea Polyphemus Scamandrios Troy Turnus Venus

Roger Lancelyn Green, Betty Middleton-Sandford

The Tale of Troy

Roger Lancelyn Green’s The Tale of Troy stresses that the origins of the Trojan War go right back to the beginning of Zeus’ reign, when Prometheus prophesised that the sea nymph Thetis would give birth to a son who would grow up to be greater than his father. In order to preserve his power, Zeus changed his mind about being Thetis’ consort, and instead arranged for her to be married to the minor hero Peleus. All the Olympians attended the celebration, except for Eris, the godde(...)

literary

YEAR: 1958

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Achilles Aeneas Agamemnon Ajax Andromache Antenor Aphrodite Apollo Athena/ Athene Calchas Circe Clytemnestra Cyclops / Cyclopes Diomedes Epic Cycle Eris Golden Apple Hector Hecuba Helen Hera Heracles / Herakles Hercules Hermes Hermione Homer Iliad Iphigenia / Iphigeneia Laocoon Menelaus Neoptolemus Nestor Odysseus/ Ulysses Palamedes Paris Patroclus Peleus Philoctetes Priam Prometheus Sinon Sirens Thetis Tiresias Trojan Horse (wooden) Trojan War Troy Virgil’s Aeneid Zeus

Adèle Geras

Troy

Troy is a retelling of the final stages of the Trojan War, focalised through a group of young people living in the besieged city. Xanthe and Marpessa are sisters raised in Troy after being found as babies on the slopes of Mount Ida. Xanthe is nursemaid to Hector and Andromache’s baby son Astyanax, but also tends to wounded soldiers in the hospital she calls the Blood Room. She falls in love with Alastor, a wealthy young Trojan with an overbearing mother, who has been recruited into a (...)

literary

YEAR: 2000

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Achilles Andromache Aphrodite Hector Helen Hermes Homer Iliad Priam Trojan War Troy

David Gemmell

Troy (Series, Book 2): Shield of Thunder

Troy, Shield of Thunder is the second in a trilogy of books by David Gemmel on the story of Troy. Shield of Thunder and Fall of Kings were published posthumously after Gemmel’s passing in 2006. The book spins an epic tale of love, trust, romance and bloodshed across the years before the destruction of Troy. In Chapter 1, A black wind rising, Penelope, wife of Odysseus and Ithakan queen is introduced. Kalliades the young warrior, together with Banokles, rescue Piria the runaway tr(...)

literary

YEAR: 2006

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Agamemnon Andromache Hector Odysseus/ Ulysses Penelope Priam Troy

Leonid Gore, Kate Hovey

Voices of the Trojan War

Voices of the Trojan War recounts the saga of Troy in verse. The book is a collection of 53 short poems, bookended by an invocation and epilogue. Most of the poems are in the form ABAB, but a few feature other patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Each one has a title, and is preceded by a classical epigraph. Excerpts from Homer’s Iliad and book two of Virgil’s Aeneid feature numerous times, but there are also references to The Odyssey, the plays of Euripides, Ovid, and Lucian. The book(...)

literary

YEAR: 2004

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Achilles Aeneas Agamemnon Andromache Aphrodite Athena/ Athene Cassandra Diomedes Epeius Hector Hecuba Helen Menelaus Odysseus/ Ulysses Palladium Paris Patroclus Philoctetes Poseidon Priam Thetis Trojan Horse (wooden) Trojan War Troy Zeus

Lee Smyth

Warriors (Series, Book 1): Achilles’ Rage

This novel is set during the Trojan War, when two fictional characters, the twins Jem and Wren get involved with the rivalry between Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon and Hector. They witness the ending of the war and the seizure of Troy. Jem and Wren are orphans from Lemnos. Their parents were killed and the twins were takes as slaves by the horrible Greek mercenaries Scarp and Claw. They were brought to work with horses and are assigned to Achilles’ camp where they witness his harsh feud wit(...)

literary

YEAR: 2017

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Achilles Agamemnon Andromache Hector Helen Odysseus/ Ulysses Paris Patroclus

Lee Smyth

Warriors (Series, Book 2): Tel's Odyssey

The first novel, Achilles' Rage followed the story of the Trojan War through the eyes of twins from Lemnos, Wren and Jem. This story follows Telemachus' quest (as in the title, Tel’s (Telemachus') Odyssey) to find his father, Odysseus, whom he believes is still alive. Telemachus is the narrator of story who describes how the damnati took over Ithaca in the absence of his father. The damnati are the most notorious criminals whom Agamemnon freed as he needed soldiers for the war.(...)

literary

YEAR: 2017

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Achilles Agamemnon Ajax Andromache Hector Homer Odysseus/ Ulysses Penelope Telemachus