Ariadne: The Mesmerising Sunday Times Bestselling Retelling of Ancient Greek Myth

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Perhaps most telling is the focus on Ariadne's younger sister, Phaedra, who "wins" the perfect marriage to a hero, becomes queen of Athens, and still finds herself trapped in an endless cycle of pregnancy and depression despite her intelligence and talent for politics. And Artemis grieved her companion, so she gathered up the remnants of his body, which were strewn across Crete, and she placed them in the sky, where they would burn in the darkness and she could look upon him each night as she set out with her silver bow, alone, her supremacy and her virtue both unchallenged.

She longs to escape Crete and the unappealing marriage her father has planned for her; when Theseus arrives as part of the group to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, she sees her chance and helps him defeat the beast. Ariadne is the granddaughter of the sun god and sister of the Minotaur, a monstrous bull with a taste for human blood.ARIADNE gives voice to the misused Princess of Crete who betrayed her father to save Theseus from the Minotaur. It seems almost that it is used as merely a vessel for getting Ariadne to Naxos, the locale of her other notable appearance in Greek mythology.

I watched how she flung herself into the music and transformed it into a graceful frenzy, and I followed suit. It is pretty much a domestic situation where Ariadne raises a family whilst being involved in a combination of women’s refuge and religious cult. Ariadne is a fascinating character and it was so compelling to read the story from her point of view. For example, as she offers a detailed depiction of the infancy and development of the Minotaur—Ariadne’s half brother—the monster ceases to be horrifying and instead becomes slightly ridiculous.As their lives criss-cross through girlhood and womanhood, the secrets that their husbands keep become a monstrous backdrop to their relationship. With her wonderfully executed debut that reimagines the classic tale of Theseus, Adriane and the Minotaur, Jennifer Saint joins the likes of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker in forging mesmerising retellings of ancient Greek myths from a female -perspective.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to risk everything for love ensure her happy ending?Far from giving her escape from her cruel fate, she was immediately set upon in an endless chase by the crimson-streaked eagle bent upon eternal vengeance.