If you’re a Greek mythology fan—and especially a fan of warrior women—you will love Atalanta by Jennifer Saint! Full of heart, strength, and determination, but also moral complications, mercilessness, and a striking brutality, this story never ceases to amaze me.
About the Book
In the beginning, Atalanta is an infant princess left to die on a hillside, abandoned by her father because she isn’t the son he hoped for. She is taken in and raised by a bear and her cubs—until they leave her and she is consequently taken in by Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Living among Artemis’s nymphs and under the vow that she will never marry, she sees how Artemis punishes those who lie with men, including her good friend Callisto. Under the goddess’s tutelage, Atalanta becomes a skilled huntress. She earns her reputation especially by slaying two centaurs who threaten to burn Artemis’s forest.
Then, a call rings out across Greece: Jason, who is trying to prove his worth as nephew to a king, is requesting heroes to join him on his ship, the Argo’s, voyage. Their quest is to sail across the sea and retrieve the treasured Golden Fleece from Aeetes, a so-called impossible task. Artemis tells Atalanta to go in her name. As the only woman Argonaut, Atalanta is ridiculed: but she proves her worth among the men, piercing her arrows into their enemies. She also finds a passionate love with Meleager, a fellow Argonaut who believes in her.
The voyage does not bring as much glory as Atalanta hoped, however. They retrieve the Fleece, but only with help from Aeetes’s daughter, who Jason eventually runs off with. And in a boar hunt following their return, Meleager dies, while Atalanta is left to birth his son alone. Eventually, she goes back to her father King Iasus, and Hippomenes—who she met back when she slayed the centaurs—wins her in marriage. The story ends when she makes love to Hippomenes in the temple of Rhea, who punishes them by turning them both into lions.
Review
Printed on the back of this book is a review from Glamour, which explains that if you liked Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, you will like Jennifer Saint—it’s a tale of Greek myth, heroism, and perhaps something darker, all wrapped up in one heck of a novel.
I have to say that I first loved the feminism. There were so many times in this book that Atalanta proved herself greater than or equal to the men who defied her, and I always cheered for her victories. There was something deeper, too, that I think will resonate with so many readers: that misogynistic ideology that a woman will never be good enough, that she has to work twice as hard just to be respected. When Atalanta presents herself as a potential Argonaut, for example, the men tell her it would be a ridiculous for a woman to come along on their journey and call herself a hero. We also see the price women pay for their sexual transgressions: unwanted pregnancies, death, transformations, and societal scorn, whereas men face little to no consequence. For example, Artemis’s nymphs all take vows not to purposely involve themselves with men. But they are punished when men pursue them without their permission: Arethusa gets turned into a spring after the river-god chases her, and when Zues rapes Callisto, Artemis turns her into a bear. One praise of this book has been the complex morality of Artemis, and it’s clear that her decisions certainly give readers a lot to think about.
Men also have more sexual freedom to move between women—such as Jason, who promises marriage to Hypsipyle but then runs away with Medea instead. And although Meleager dies before he can do anything about Atalanta’s pregnancy, if he lived, he would’ve had a lot more freedom than her as to his options. These types of questions parallel those of women today, who lobby for their reproductive freedom in a world that seems to favor men’s.
One interesting point about men’s sexuality in this novel was the relationship between Heracles and Hylas. Evidently, this is the only queer-adjacent love plot that Saint talks about, although the inclusion of a relationship between an older and younger man is not surprising given ancient Greece’s notoriety for practicing pederasty. I thought it was interesting especially given that Hylas’s disappearance was the reason Heracles wasn’t able to finish the quest with the rest of the Argonauts.
My only real critique of this novel was the ending. I thought Atalanta returning to her father and marrying Hippomenes made sense, but her turning into a lion made me really sad. I wish she could’ve grown up as a human mother to Parthenopaios. Then again, this sort of tragic ending / animal transformation is very characteristic Greek mythological tales, and I wonder if my American-centric view of fantasy novels—plus my passion for HEAs—has something to do with my resistance to the ending.
Of course, overall the Greek mythology in this novel is nothing short of outstanding. Jennifer Saint has had—as her bio says— “a lifelong fascination with Greek mythology” that led to her classical studies at King’s College. Although I don’t know too much about this subject, I did get to see some names I was familiar with: Artemis and her nymphs, the story of Hades and Persephone, Ares the war god, the legend of the Golden Fleece, Orpheus and his magical lyre, the voyage of the Argo. I would love to talk to Jennifer Saint and ask her how much of this tale she made up versus how much she pulled from mythology. No matter what, though, this is a story of someone who is passionate and knows her stuff! Here is what she says in her acknowledgments:
“Atalanta is such a special heroine of Greek mythology—a fearless, skilled, and ambitious woman who is a force to be reckoned with but full of heart and compassion, too. I was drawn into her story by the image of the infant snuggled up with her adopted bear-cub siblings, and as I discovered more about her, she really wove her own spell of wild magic around me. I loved writing her back into the legend of the Argonauts and I hope this novel gives others the chance to fall in love with her the same way I did.”
Needless to say, it definitely did for me!
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