Tisíc lodí - Hrdinky Tróje – Haynes Natalie (2024)

Greek myths, along with Homer's epics Iliad and Odyssey, undoubtedly form the foundation of Euro-American culture, and we have become accustomed to perceiving their great characters through a simplified template of their distinctive traits: cunning Odysseus, valiant Achilles, faithful Penelope. ***** Natalie Haynes was not satisfied with such a view and offers a much more nuanced perspective in her book A Thousand Ships. Her heroes are not the centuries-celebrated brave warriors, but their women, daughters, and mothers, whose lives were impacted by war with equal force. ***** Two-thousand-year-old stories of bravery, betrayal, and revenge give voice to the civilian victims of the Trojan War in the author's rendition, but above all, they bring them closer to us as living beings with compelling emotions: vain goddesses bickering over a golden apple, Penelope's growing irritation at her husband's absence, Cassandra's resigned frustration, whose prophecies no one believes, even though they always come true. ***** In her book, the author draws not only from Homer but also from many lesser-known surviving texts, yet her retelling certainly does not suffer from a solemn stiffness – all characters and the motives for their actions are very contemporary, believable, and above all, wonderfully entertaining.