HISTORICAL FICTION
The Heroines by Laura Shepperson, Little, Brown
In the literary world it feels as if Greek mythology is having a moment, with authors lining up to rework these classical tales of gods, wrath and thunder. But in truth the legends have always burned bright. They delve into the far corners of human behaviour and experience, picking at potent pressure points – gender, love, power, brutality, ethics and divine retribution – and it is this currency that gives them such eternal relevance.
Classicist Laura Shepperson is the latest writer to dive in with an edgy, accessible feminist reworking of the tricky story of Phaedra.
As the book opens we are in Athens, crowds fired up for what is pitched as the scandal of the century. Hippolytus, son of King Theseus, is on trial for raping his stepmother, the Cretan princess turned Athenian Queen Phaedra. But as the trial begins, we soon realise Phaedra is the one on trial, her reputation tarred by association. You see, Phaedra’s brother was the Minotaur, half man, half bull, famously slain by her husband. And her mother is Pasiphae, widely portrayed as an adulteress. Phaedra’s sister, Ariadne, was originally to marry Theseus, but something happened to her – and readers discover what later in the story. We also discover why Phaedra followed her sister
