The Heart of the Book: A Guest Post by Pat Barker
After reintroducing us to the overlooked women in mythology like Briseis in The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy, bestselling author Pat Barker returns with The Voyage Home, this time turning her pen to the myth of Cassandra. Pat has penned an exclusive guest post for B&N readers on why she wanted to write this book, down below.
Hardcover $29.00
The Voyage Home: A Novel
The Voyage Home: A Novel
By Pat Barker
In Stock Online
Hardcover $29.00
How well do you know your Greek myths? Pat Barker’s latest focuses on Cassandra, a complicated woman with the gift of prophecy, and the curse of never being believed.
How well do you know your Greek myths? Pat Barker’s latest focuses on Cassandra, a complicated woman with the gift of prophecy, and the curse of never being believed.
In recent years, the retelling of Greek myths has become almost a genre in its own right. The Voyage Home is the third volume in a trilogy based on the story of the Trojan war. In the first two books, The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy, I turned my back on the glory and gore of the battlefield and focussed instead on the experience of the captured Trojan women who were being held as slaves in the Greek camp, women who depended on each other for comfort and survival.
The Voyage Home is slightly different. The camp is being broken up, the kings setting sail for a place they call home, though it’s certainly not home to the Trojan women. The narrative’s set over four days and tells the story of three women. Cassandra, daughter of King Priam, possibly the most silenced woman in all of world literature. She’s a priestess of Apollo; he falls in love, or lust, with her and kisses her on the lips to give her the gift of true prophecy. When she still rejects his advances, he spits into her mouth to ensure that her prophecies, though invariably accurate, will never be believed. She keeps warning the Trojan princes about the impending ruin of Troy, but they won’t listen, except when she persuades her brother to deliver a prophecy for her. Weirdly, his voice is audible, while hers is not – a situation familiar to many modern women.
Agamemnon, the despoiler of Troy, chooses Cassandra as his concubine and sets sail for home. There, waiting for him, is his wife, Clytemnestra, who’s spent the last ten years mourning the daughter whom Agamemnon sacrificed to the gods to get a fair wind for Troy. Full of grief and anger, she’s spent the intervening years planning her revenge.
Both women have good reason to hate Agamemnon; they’re natural allies. Unfortunately, as middle-aged wife and young, beautiful, fertile concubine, they’re also natural enemies.
Observing their interaction is Ritsa, Cassandra’s body slave, who sympathizes wither her mistress, but resents her too – not surprisingly, since Cassandra’s treatment of her is often arrogant. Cassandra, the virgin priestess, the woman kissed by a god, is so far removed from the lives of ordinary women that she despises them. She’s perceptive about other people’s motives, but careless of their feelings, as if she too were a god.
Ultimately, it’s Ritsa who’s the central character, the one I hope the reader will like and trust. Fiercely loyal, pragmatic, focussed solely on surviving the dangers that surround her, she reminds me of the tough, hard-working, resilient women I grew up among. She has their humour, the same no-nonsense approach and it’s she, rather than the prophetess, Cassandra, or the queen, Clytemnestra, who’s at the heart of the book.
Photo Credit: Justine Stoddard