Reviews

The Priestess and the Slave by Jenny Blackford

mary_soon_lee's review against another edition

This novella alternates between the lives of two women in 5th century BC Greece, one of them a Delphic oracle and the other a slave. Both threads are clearly, knowledgeably, and engagingly written. The author is a Classicist, and she evokes the setting vividly and effectively, while avoiding awkward expository lumps. I found both main characters well-drawn, and Harmonia's story arc (the slave's story) moving. My one reservation is that neither of the two characters shapes their stories, instead they are carried along by events. Yet I cared about both of them, and felt, as I was reading this, as if I had stepped into their world for a little while.