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

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However, once the story got going, my hesitation and reserves went out the window. With stunning prose, Saint brings these characters (male, female, gods and beasts) to life in a way that I’ve only ever seen done in Circe. Not only Ariadne, but her sister Phaedra and many other forgotten women from these myths are brought to life in nuanced, complex and emotionally profound ways that will hit home to many of us, even centuries later. The price we paid for the resentment, the lust and the greed of arrogant men was our pain, shining and bright like the blade of a newly honed knife.” Daedalus seems to be one of the few admirable male characters in this novel. How is he different from the other men and gods we encounter? What role does he play in the story? Can we trust the sisters' positive account of him?

I love stories about strong female characters, and immediately found Ariadne to be a captivating heroine. Her character is well fleshed out in all of its complexity, triumph, and heartbreak. She displays strength and resilience in the face of adversity, and it was fun to follow along and cheer her on. I also found her relationship with her sister Phaedra heartwarming to read. 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.I loved seeing their sisterhood and growing up in Crete shrouded in shame, ruled over by their tyrannical father. I also loved the exploration of the sisters individual characteristics; Ariadne as the gentler, introspective sister with bravery and cunning when deciding to help Theseus: Phaedra as the outgoing, daring and confident of the two. Ariadne throws herself into domestic life on Naxos and seems to love being a mother to her sons, while Phaedra has a much more difficult time with childbirth and raising her children. Discuss the different experiences of motherhood we see in the novel, including Pasiphae's relationship with her children. Will Ariadne's decision ensure her happy ending and what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?

Saint's immersive novel thrusts the reader straight into the heart of Greek mythology with this wonderful reimagining of the story of Ariadne. The story is ladened with tragedy and also times of happiness, but there was always that overwhelming sense of foreboding. Don’t come into this story expecting gentleness. Ariadne is told with raw brutality, no holds barred.Ariadne" is a song in The Frogs, a 1974 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Burt Shevelove, revisions by Nathan Lane (2004). It just wasn’t what I wanted I guess…. too bad, I would liked to have gotten the beautiful UK edition. It was the woman, always the women, be they helpless serving girls or princesses, who paid the price. Cursed to roam the land without refuge, transformed into a shambling bear or lowing cow, or burned to ashes by the vengeful white armed goddess." 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. Madeline Miller's Circe meets Cersei Lannister in a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious heroine of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.

As if we hadn't learned from our shattered mother and her monstrous spawn that all a woman can do in this world is take what she wants from it and crush those who would stand in her way before they squash her down to nothing." But retellings come in many forms and guises. In my debut novel Pandora I wanted to explore female agency and the complexities of human nature, all through the richness of a Georgian lens using the myth of Pandora’s box as an anchor. All the works I’ve chosen have interpreted the Greek myths in different ways, but they are all testament to how these ancient stories have got under our skin. Richard Strauss's standard repertory opera Ariadne auf Naxos of 1912 was preceded by a L'Arianna each by Claudio Monteverdi in 1608, and Carlo Agostino Badia in 1702; Ariadne by German composer Johann Georg Conradi in 1691 and Arianna in ca. 1727 by Benedetto Marcello; and by non-operatic Ariadne auf Naxos works including a cantata based on the Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg poem, Jiri Antonin Benda's 1775 melodrama Ariadne auf Naxos, and Joseph Haydn's 1790 cantata Arianna a Naxos.Overall I really enjoyed Ariadne. I enjoyed learning more about her after the events in the labyrinth and I really liked her as a character. I had thought he brought salvation with him. Instead he had traded my existing bondage for another.I just cannot pass up a Greek mythology retelling, and the story of Ariadne is an undeniably fascinating one. Growing up in Crete as the daughter of King Minos, she sees how her mother suffers at the hands of the gods as retribution for their anger towards the king. Ariadne vows to never be a pawn for the gods or for mortal men. When she is faced with the terrible atrocities happening under King Minos, will she have the courage to do the right thing and finally accept her destiny? I would not say this was a feminist retelling in any way, honestly, so I would warn others who might read it for such things (as it has been advertised as such) as Ariadne makes one decision in the beginning of the book and then becomes a brittle leaf in the wind, blowing which ever way at the mercy of the men around her. An arresting novel in verse which brings the Greek monster Geryon (who features in the 10th Labour of Heracles) into a modern-day setting. Drawing on surviving fragments of the lyric poet Stesichorus’s work Geryoneis, this is a moving coming-of-age tale about love and yearning which is whimsical, sad, and a fascinating take on a character overlooked in favour of the larger-than-life man who slayed him.

American composer Irwin Fischer composed "Ariadne Abandoned" in 1938, a short piece scored for solo piano or orchestra. [44] Beautifully written and nuanced, Ariadne explores the bonds between women and their epic quest for agency in patriarchal Greek society.

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Metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico painted 8 works with a classical statue of Ariadne as a prop. 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. In creating a "biography" for a historicized Ariadne, Theseus' having abandoned her on Naxos explains her presence there; in assembling a set of biographical narrative episodes, this would have had to be placed after her abduction from Knossos. In keeping with the office of Minos as King of Crete, Ariadne came to bear the late title of "Princess". The culmination of this rationalization is the realistic historicizing fiction of Mary Renault, The Bull from the Sea (1962).