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ClareR (5874 KP) rated Epic of Helinthia in Books
Apr 18, 2025
The humans of Helinthia’s island are caught in the crossfire when other Gods (namely Hera) decide to teach her a lesson. Of course the humans are just pawns to be played with.
I liked the action (fights, chases, lion attacks (I know!!)), the interference of other Gods/ Goddesses (Artemis and Apollo in particular) in order to help their favourite humans, and the fact that you could never be quite sure who you could trust.
The writing is immersive - the scenes are well set, the characters are both easy to live and hate, as well as empathise with.
It felt as though a lot of research had gone into the culture of the time as well as the mythology surrounding it, and it was rather violent and bloody on occasion (these were violent times!).
I’m so glad that I enjoyed this, as I have the next instalment all set to go from BookSirens - the Oracle of Helinthia is set to be out very soon (and my review will be up as soon as I’ve read it!).
The book reads as a quasi-novel, from the birth of the universe to the third and fourth generations of immortals (this includes the creators, the titans, the gods, and mythical creatures/characters, spawns of titans and gods, gods and creatures, gods and men and all sorts.) and their adventures, each following on from the other.
I have always had an interest in the Greek myths and gods, and as I suggested above the really interesting part of these stories, beyond the very human nature of the immortals (jealousy, unreasonableness, duplicity, rage, deceit and pride) which makes for so much more of a believable creation theory, is the myriad ways they have influenced English language (any many others I'm sure). To give an example (I'm showing my own ignorance flagrantly here) a simple thing, the alphabet. It never occurred to me, in my own self centered existence, this simply come from the first and second letters of the Greek alphabet. Alpha and Beta. So simple, so obvious, yet I never made this connection.
The stories themselves are wonderful, and the best thing about them is they all tie in with a creation theory. Something, whatever it is, is learned, or created. Some paradigm is set, some moral conundrum is answered, or something in the world is explained by the end of every story told (the tides, the moon, wine, love, soul, war, sex, the seasons, humanity itself just to name a few). It's such an entertaining read, and I find myself telling anyone who will listen some of the revelations I find in this book page on page on page.
As an end note, don't be overwhelmed by the prospect of reading about these stories, this installment ONLY covers from creation, to the establishment of the twelve Greek gods, and their children. It stops before the even greater amount of legends stemming from human demigods (Hercules, Perseus etc) and these are picked up in Fry's most recent offering, Heroes (which I am yet to read).
If you have any interest in the Greek mythology, or etymology, or even history as a whole, this is absolutely one for you.
- Rob