After a poor performance training against Lykou, Daphne finds herself called back by the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, to her palace. Many of the gods are present including Demeter, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Athena, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, and Apollo. Zeus tells Daphne that there will be a competition in Sparta to be a part of Queen Helen's personal guard and they want her to win it. Zeus wants her to protect his daughter, Queen Helen, who he believes is in danger. King Menelaus has called all the Achaean kings to Sparta for a conclave and when all the rulers of Greece are present, the gods believe that Nyx will seek her revenge.
Daphne returns to the home of her adopted parents, Revna and Ephor Apidanos Diodorus. They inform her that there is to be agon tomorrow. For her brother Pyrrhus, the agon is a chance to redeem himself from being the Deserter of Carneia. Daphne is overjoyed until she realizes that it is she who must win the agon.
The first Fate shows her a bloody battlefield strewn with corpses from Sparta, Tenedos, Athenia and Mycena. The second Fate, Lakhesis tells Daphne "There is a great war on the horizon, like none Greece has ever known. All the kingdoms from every corner of this world will take part and stake their claim. Should you fail in the task assigned to you by the gods, that which you love most will meet its end right here on this battlefield. The Sparta you know will be gone forever more on the bloody fields of Troy." The third Fate, Atropos tells her they will welcome their destruction and that she will be the ruin of Olympus. Klotho, the oldest Fate asks her to protect Troy when she fails to protect her queen. Daphne is devastated by what the Fates have revealed to her. And her horror is only compounded by a dream in which Nyx appears and she sees the kings of Greece all murdered on the palace floor.
Daphne quickly discovers that Menelaus, the husband of Queen Helen is a cruel man, determined to control who Helen sees and where she goes. Helen, who is half-sister to Artemis and Apollo, and has a daughter, Hermione, considers the palace her prison. King Menelaus is not friendly towards Daphne.
Soon the kings from across Greece begin arriving: first to arrive is Odysseus, Anax of Ithaca, followed by Achilles of Phthia and his Myrmidons, then Alcimedes of Locris, Ajax of Salamis, King Nestor and his sons, and Ariadne Princess of Crete along with the gods Dionysus disguised as Dion of Phrygia and Apollo as Appollodoris. They are followed by the Trojans, dark-haired Hector and golden-haired Paris, two sons of Priam King of Troy. The last person to arrive is Theseus of Athens, who supposedly Daphne killed.
The purpose of the conclave is to arrange potential trades in exchange for the Trojans dropping the Hellesport tax. To the surprise of the Achaeans, the Trojans accept their offer and agree to lift the tax. However, Daphne makes two discoveries that night. Theseus whom she killed is actually Ares, the god of war, and King Menelaus and his hateful brother Agamemnon are plotting a war with Troy. With the Trojans agreeing to lift the tax, initiating a war is now much more difficult. King Menelaus, Agamemnon and Ares decide the only way to bring about war is to capture the Trojan princes who are staying with Daphne's father and family. King Menelaus gives the order to kill the ephor -and his family.
Horrified, Daphne goes to tell Helen and sends Apollo to warn her father. Helen and Daphne arrive at her father's home, only to find that the Achaeans are only doors away. Daphne learns that her adoptive father is actually Peneios, the river god. Peneios tells the group that the only way to flee Sparta for Troy is by the river Eurotas. The group is pursued to the banks of the river by Ares, Melenaus and the soldiers. At the river Penois won't reveal the name of Daphne's father, but Ligeia tells her that when the Midas Curse is removed, her questions will be answered.
At the river bank, Daphne, Helen, Paris, Hector and Lykou flee in a boat while Penois, Revna, her maid Ligeia and Lykou's family flee into the forest around Gythium. They are pursued by Ares and the Achaean soldiers. Daphne, Helen, Paris and Hector all manage to flee Sparta. Helen is distraught over leaving her young daughter Hermione.
Daphne is taken to the wooded throne room in the pantheon. Hera the Queen of Olympus, Dionysus, Athena, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Zeus, Hades and other gods including Apollo, are present. Daphne begs the gods to stop the war but they refuse, telling her there are darker powers at work. Zeus tells Daphne she has failed to protect Helen, instead drawing her into the war. The gods are divided, some side with Zeus, other with Apollo and Daphne. Zeus, furious at Apollo siding with Daphne, binds his son's power.
When Daphne returns to Earth she finds herself in the beautiful city of Troy. King Priam allows Helen to choose to stay or leave, and Helen decides to stay. Soon after Penthesila, Queen of the Amazons, her sister Hippolyta, along with the Amazons arrive in Troy. Hippolyta reveals that they have heard rumours of Helen being seduced and kidnapped by a Trojan prince. Soon Troy's other allies begin arriving.
As Troy heads towards war, Daphne must not only protect Helen but also deal with the schemes of the gods as they take sides in the war. Daphne knows the walls of Troy were given a special power by Apollo to protect the city, which can only fall if the invader is invited inside. However, Daphne begins to understand that Troy's walls are protecting something being kept inside from being removed. Too late, Daphne uncovers what that secret is, and its unleashing leads to the destruction of Troy and much that she holds dear.
Discussion
Blood of Troy is the middle novel in the Daughter of Sparta series by Claire M. Andrews. It continues the saga of Daphne Diodorus, who is now tasked to protect Queen Helen of Sparta, but finds herself drawn into the Trojan War.
To understand the relationship between the many characters in this novel, it is helpful to understand some of Greek mythology. It's possible to read the novel without having this background but it makes the novel more enjoyable if the reader already has some knowledge of the gods and goddesses and their relationships to one another. Andrews does incorporate explanations within her novel of the Olympians and the Titans and events like the Titanomachy but a Foreword would also have been helpful in this regard.
The Titans were the twelve children of Uranus and Gaia. There were six sons: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Cronus and six daughters: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Uranus and Gaia also birthed the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes. The first generation of Olympians, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia (Dionysus), Demeter and Hera were the result of the union of Cronus with his older sister Rhea.
After the birth of these children, they decided not to have anymore children. When Uranus imprisoned six of their children in the Earth along with several of the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes, Gaia asked her other Titan children to help free them but only Cronus agreed to help because he wanted to rule the cosmos. Gaia wanted him to castrate Uranus, which Cronus agreed to do and accomplished with a special adamantine sickle! Cronus then became ruler of the Titans. Uranus cursed Cronus, that his own children would rebel against him.
Cronus, fearful of the curse, swallowed each of his children as they were born. But his wife, Rhea was able to save her youngest child, Zeus who grew to manhood. Zeus tricked his father into vomiting up Zeus's siblings. They, along with the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, rebelled against Cronus and the Titans. After ten years of war, called the Titanomachy, Zeus and the Olympians were victorious. The major Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus (a type of dungeon of torture) with the Hecantonchires as their guards.
In her Author's Note, Andrews asks, "What is the true story of Helen of Troy?...In actuality, we do not know much about the Trojan War, other than that the archeological evidence points to a war between the Achaeans (known then as Ahhiyawa) and Troy (known then as the city of IIius/Wilusa)..." From her considerable research, Andrews "sought to create a story that was both authentic and original, that does not diminish the myth that has persevered for many millennia, and that would still be a new experience for readers."
In Blood of Troy, the story of the Trojan War is told from the perspective of a female warrior, Daphne Diodorus. who is an acclaimed Spartan warrior. It also includes other female characters, including Helen Queen of Sparta, Hippolyta and Penthesila of the Amazons, as well as the goddess of the night, Nyx. The retelling is fresh and engaging. Helen does not flee Sparta with her lover Paris, but flees while helping save two of the Trojan princes, Paris and Hector, as well as Daphne and her family who have been hosting the princes. In the novel, as in the Iliad, the gods take sides in the war, some helping Sparta and others like Apollo, Artemis, and Demeter on the side of Troy. The wooden horse, given as a departing gift to Troy by the Spartans, never enters the city unopened. In Blood of Troy, Daphne warns against bringing the wooden horse into the city and instead the Trojans set fire to it outside the gates, exposing the hidden Achaeans within, who are then taken prisoner. While the Spartans do massacre the Trojans, the city is destroyed when Pandora's jar containing Nyx's family is inadvertently uncovered by Daphne.
In Greek mythology, the gods are often busy interfering in the lives of humans, sometimes helping them, other times creating chaos. And in the novel, the Trojan War is one such event where they interfere in a big way. When Daphne asks the gods of Olympus to help stave off a war between Sparta and Troy they refuse, telling her there are darker forces at work. Lykou notes the absence of funeral games, their brilliant leader Paidonomos Leonides and the unusual Spartan battle formations, suggesting something evil is in the Achaean camps. When Nyx appears on the battlefield, Daphne begins to suspect that she is working for the downfall of Troy, but to what end she doesn't know.
Between the deadly skirmishes, Daphne must deal with various gods who are either trying to help or hinder her. Some of the gods help her: Apollo gives Daphne a bangle to wear around her bicep with golden stones that glow different colours. This bangle, he tells her, will protect her when she cannot, and does save her life. Hermes takes her to the island of Lemnos where the god Hephaestus makes her armor and weapons to fight the gods. He also trains Daphne further, so she will be able to fight Ares who has already challenged her. Other gods are more interested in killing her, including Hera, Ares and Nyx.
Since the Trojan War takes up much of the novel, the story features Daphne in battles against both Spartans and various gods with plenty of blood, gore and death. Daphne, who is an accomplished Spartan warrior, has struggled all her life to be accepted in her adopted home of Sparta. She doesn't know the identity of her father, which adds to her internal conflict. In addition to this, she must deal with the gods who continue to ask for her help, while never fully divulging their reasons. Her devotion and loyalty to her family comes into conflict because of the tasks the Olympians set for her. By the time Troy falls, she feels she has betrayed by everyone she loves.
Andrews offers her readers a map of the Greek world and of the city of Troy. Historical fiction should seek to portray the setting as accurately as possible and Andrews definitely accomplishes this. At a whopping 461 pages, Blood of Troy is not a quick read, but it is exciting, filled with action, and a touch of romance. Blood of Troy is suitable for older teens and those adults who love Greek mythology.
Book Details:
Blood of Troy by Claire M. Andrews
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2022
461 pp.
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2022
461 pp.
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