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A review by ryner
The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough
4.0
In this retelling of a classic Greek epic, the narrative is delivered through the perspective of more than a dozen major players of the Trojan War, from the foolish and pathetic to the heroic and doomed. Was Helen's flight with Paris from Greece the root cause of the war, or was it merely a convenient catalyst toward a political conflict that was inevitable? More than anything, The Song of Troy emphasizes that while The Iliad has been heralded as an epic for millennia, it is also unquestionably a tragedy for everyone involved.
With chronicles of the Trojan War coming from multiple historical sources, and not all of them agreeing on the details, we'll never know for certain exactly how (or even if) it all went down. It's fun to read what sort of spin more contemporary authors are putting on the events, as well as compare them to what the ancients have to say. In some, the gods of Olympus take sides and actively participate in the conflict, while in others they are mentioned merely as passive observers. In McCullough's book mortals speculate in desperation about the gods' favor or disfavor, and about which characters may have divine ancestry, but McCullough gives the reader no real reason to believe that the gods actually exist in her world at all, which is an intriguing take in comparison to The Iliad. Another modern interpretation I highly recommend is The Song of Achilles. Between the two, despite having not yet read The Iliad, the legendary story now feels familiar to me.
With chronicles of the Trojan War coming from multiple historical sources, and not all of them agreeing on the details, we'll never know for certain exactly how (or even if) it all went down. It's fun to read what sort of spin more contemporary authors are putting on the events, as well as compare them to what the ancients have to say. In some, the gods of Olympus take sides and actively participate in the conflict, while in others they are mentioned merely as passive observers. In McCullough's book mortals speculate in desperation about the gods' favor or disfavor, and about which characters may have divine ancestry, but McCullough gives the reader no real reason to believe that the gods actually exist in her world at all, which is an intriguing take in comparison to The Iliad. Another modern interpretation I highly recommend is The Song of Achilles. Between the two, despite having not yet read The Iliad, the legendary story now feels familiar to me.