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

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Will Ariadne’s decision to help Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she, as so many other women before her, be treated as nothing more than a necessary sacrifice? Ariadne Book Review: My Opinion When we think of Greek myths we think of vengeful gods, legendary heroes, sweeping love affairs and dastardly deeds. They are transformative tales which explore the full range of human experience so it is hardly surprising that writers continually turn to them for inspiration.

In Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Ariadne. from Ideal Likenesses (1825), she sees her as "a lesson how inconstancy should be repaid again by like inconstancy". [40] She returned to the subject of Ariadne in 1838 with her Ariadne watching the Sea after the Departure of Theseus.: [41] one of her Subjects for Pictures. Initially, I wanted to give this a 4.25 ⭐ rating and I had to really convince myself to analyse the situation again. Karl Kerenyi and Robert Graves theorized that Ariadne, whose name they thought derived from Hesychius' enumeration of "Άδνον", a Cretan-Greek form of " arihagne" ("utterly pure"), was a Great Goddess of Crete, "the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete", [29] once archaeological investigation began. Kerenyi observed that her name was merely an epithet and claimed that she was originally the "Mistress of the Labyrinth", both a winding dancing ground and, in the Greek opinion, a prison with the dreaded Minotaur in its centre. Kerenyi explained that a Linear B inscription from Knossos "to all the gods, honey… [,] to the mistress of the labyrinth honey" in equal amounts, implied to him that the Mistress of the Labyrinth was a Great Goddess in her own right. [30] Professor Barry Powell suggested that she was the Snake Goddess of Minoan Crete. [31]This book especially focused on the women in Greek mythology, and so many parallels and foreshadowing was told throughout this book; through Scylla, Medusa and Pasiphae’s stories. This book explored how both of the sisters survived in circumstances that they weren’t prepared for, how they are treated as a commodity, and punished for men’s actions. This book emphasised how women have been silenced in myths and the unfairness of women’s positions in societies, but it also highlights how these women find strength, in solitude or through power, or with other women. The classical references to these progeny are at "TheoiProject: Ariadne" and "Theoi Project: Dionysus Family". Euanthes, Latramys, and Tauropolis are only mentioned in scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3. 997. In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition?

Saint’s immersive novel thrusts the reader straight into the heart of Greek mythology with this wonderful reimagining of the story of Ariadne.’– iPaper When Ariadne falls in love with Dionysus: "He showed me that he was truly the best of all men, of all gods." I absolutely adored this book and am encouraging everyone I know to buy a copy.’⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ READER REVIEW Ariadne, played by Aiysha Hart, is a major character in the BBC series Atlantis (2013), which is loosely based on Greek myths. She falls in love with Jason and helps him conquer the Minotaur and escape the labyrinth. Later, her stepmother, Pasiphae tries to prevent their union.

When Theseus, the Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne's decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?

There are variations to the myth regarding Ariadne’s fate and I actually enjoyed the author’s interpretation and how the story ended. Ariadne Book Review: Summary It's moments like these that remind me of the missed opportunity to really give a nuanced feminist slant to these myths. Saint takes the easy wins but seems incapable of stringing them all together into a grand theme or message. Ariadne makes one affirmative decision to help Theseus at the start of the story and then is just blown in the wind for the rest of the book. Even when she does stand up to others it amounts to nothing more than her own crippling self-doubt. Now it's true that Saint must follow quite closely the original source material but the internal life of Ariadne is all her own and that is unfortunately the weakest part of the story. A beautifully written story with deeply drawn characters all shaped by the past, with vengeance in their mind and told in a narrative that is unpredictable in its reveal, beautiful in its story telling and vivid in its imagination. I just loved this story. while this isnt the book i was expecting - i figured this would solely be a retelling of the minotaur, but actually follows ariadnes entire life (the minotaur is only like the first 25%) - but thats because i wasnt familiar with ariadnes story in depth. i really enjoyed getting to know more about her outside of her fathers kingdom. i found her relationship with dionysus fascinating and the alternate perspective of theseus refreshing.

Before Ariadne runs away with Theseus: "Today I would seize my destiny for myself ... My story would not be one of death and suffering and sacrifice." The story continues to follow the separate lives of the two sisters until they meet again years later when it is apparent that both women bear the scars of sorrow, love, betrayal and now deep seeded suspicion of each other as the events that shaped them now threatens to pull them apart. When you read Greek Mythology, you know tragedy is just lurking around the corner and this book is no different. Ariadne, Princess of Crete and daughter of the fearsome King Minos, grows up hearing stories of gods and heroes. But beneath the golden palace something else stirs, the hoofbeats and bellows echoing from the Labyrinth below. Every year its captive, the Minotaur – Ariadne’s brother – demands blood. Ariadne is a story of love and betrayal and the ways in which women fall victim to the egos of the men in their lives. It’s also a story of sisterhood. The Vatican Sleeping Ariadne, long erroneously identified as Cleopatra, a Roman marble in late Hellenistic style