If you have been following my blog this whole time, then you have probably noticed by now that I have a predilection for Greek mythology. Daughters of Sparta is about two sisters, Klytemnestra and her younger, more infamous sister, Helen. Helen is “the face that launched a thousand ships” and caused the Trojan War. Daughters of Sparta is presented as historical fiction, though; the Greek gods do not appear as characters in the novel. The gods are prayed to, and sacrifices are made to them, but they are otherwise useless and do not influence the outcome of the story. I read Daughters of Sparta because I was interested in reading about Klytemnestra and Helen from their own perspective, but I found this novel to be somewhat lacking.

The depiction of Helen in Daughters of Sparta is disappointing as she lives up to the anti-feminist image presented in myth. She is sympathetic up to a certain point, but she is mostly naïve and vain. She is unhappy in her marriage to Menelaos, even though she has manufactured her own unhappiness. She falls for Paris’s flattery and runs away with him to Troy because he gives her the attention she craves. She only regrets her actions when Paris loses interest in her. Klytemnestra, on the other hand, is the more developed character, and the more interesting because she fights against the role that society has pigeonholed her into as a woman. She is initially the meek wife of Agamemnon, brother to Menelaos, and accepts the limitations of her life, but when Agamemnon goes away to lead the Greek army against Troy, she steps up to become the leader of his kingdom in his absence. I was especially interested to see how Agamemnon’s sacrifice of their daughter for the sake of the war would be depicted, and it was heartbreaking to read. But Klytemnestra is not merely an angry woman who gets revenge on her husband for killing their daughter, she is a woman at war with herself. She is torn between the sense of loyalty and duty towards her husband that she is expected to have, and her love for her children who she would do anything to protect.

I would not say that Daughters of Sparta is a complete waste of time if you have an interest in Greek mythology, but I think you would be better off reading Madeline Miller’s novels The Song of Achilles and Circe and Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand Ships.