Jennifer Saint’s debut novel, Ariadne, is a feminist retelling of a Greek myth in which, as we so often see, the women are mere sidenotes to the male hero’s story, or they are tragic figures who are unjustly punished for the misdeeds of men. In her novel, Saint does not seek to change the fate of Ariadne, nor of the other core female characters — Pasiphaë, Phaedra, the maenads — as perhaps may be tempting; instead, she returns their fates to them. In short, we hear the women’s voices, we learn why they do what they do, and the decisions they make are theirs, whether or not they are the right ones.

And when the women are influenced or tricked — for example, when Pasiphaë is cursed to lust after the Cretan bull — the blame is not placed on them. Indeed, unlike in many other retellings of the myth, including other feminist ones, Pasiphaë is not a villain at all. She is a woman and a mother who did the best she could with the lot she had.

When I read Ariadne, I was instantly drawn into the world Saint creates. The descriptions are vivid and beautiful, and you can almost see yourself in the Cretan court or on the island of Naxos. As a modern reader who is familiar with the stories, it can be frustrating to read Greek myths, as we know how things turn out, so it is easy to view the protagonists as naïve or even stupid when they still choose the wrong path.

I did not experience this with Ariadne. Theseus seems so charming and heroic that we can believe him to be sincere; besides which, having already read about Ariadne’s childhood in Crete, we can easily sympathise with her desire to escape. As such, we can feel Ariadne’s emotions all the more when she realises her abandonment on Naxos; her angered screams, which go unheard, resonate clearly, even with modern readers.

Throughout the novel, Saint puts a focus on women who were punished for the sins of the men surrounding them. From the very beginning, the readers, alongside young Ariadne and Phaedra, hear about Scylla and Medusa — both traditionally monsters and villains; both reframed into victims of powerful men. It’s a point that bears repeating that Saint does not change the myth to favour these women; she merely shifts the perspective, allowing us to realise the tragedy of women’s lives in these times.

So too do we come to re-understand the lives of Pasiphaë, Phaedra, and the maenads. In myth, one is a perverse witch who fell in love with a bull, another a treacherous queen who killed herself over her love for her stepson, the last insane, deviant, mindless followers of a god.

“I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself.”

Ariadne – Jennifer Saint

In Ariadne, they become sympathetic characters, much more human than they have previously been portrayed. Flawed, yes — but the point is not to make them perfect. Ariadne herself is occasionally inconsistent and too trusting despite everything she goes through and despite her strong natures, but these characteristics make her a much more rounded, complete woman than we have known before.

Ariadne is a beautifully-written, character-driven novel, which sets women front and centre. If you are a fan of Greek myth, then I strongly recommend picking up Ariadne, and I for one will make sure to pick up Saint’s second novel, Elektra, as soon as I can.