Subverting Heroism and the Trojan War: A Review of A THOUSAND SHIPS by Natalie Haynes

In this subversive novel shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020, Natalie Haynes produces a bold reading of the women featured in Greek mythology, who have “always been relegated to the edges of the story.” Until now…

A Thousand Ships presents a narrative with a feminist twist on the myths surrounding the Trojan War. Haynes brings to life a series of fierce accounts told by the women affected by the war’s bloodshed and betrayals. Although some might claim that these figures are not forgotten, in original sources such as The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Heroides, they are only briefly mentioned and tend to function as possessions subjected to the abuses of men. From these mythological origins, Haynes assembles her own emotional masterpiece packed with elegant language which can be implied through her descriptions of grief and love. For instance, when Amazonian queen Penthesilea shoots and kills her sister, Hippolyta with a bow and arrow in a tragic accident, she vows to avenge her by surrendering herself to death. Having lost the one person who was “dearer to her than life itself,” Penthesilea proudly leads her own army of women, her “bright jewels of the mountainous north” into battle to defend Troy. Haynes not only dismantles the rules of heroic traditions evident in Homer’s epic the Iliad, such as the value of glory for men who fought on the battlefield, she also provides perspective on behalf of the women who were motivated by their love for friends and family.

In The Odyssey, Homer portrays Odysseus as a brave leader with good judgement, whereas Haynes challenges the validity of this notion by insinuating how incapable Odysseus is of returning home in one piece to his family, especially when some of his own men return to their former lives. Odysseus’ lack of progress and attempts at warding off any unwanted distractions prove to be a comical failure in Penelope's letters, as Haynes incorporates sarcastic humour throughout her novel. Years after his departure, Penelope who is riddled with frustration by her husband’s impulsive need to seize opportunities and endanger himself in the process writes:

“They say that Circe, your witch friend, told you the consultation was necessary. I suppose I should be grateful that she only persuaded you to sail to the end of the world to do her bidding. Some women really will do anything to avoid returning a husband to his wife. But honestly, Odysseus, did you believe this journey was necessary?”

Penelope now mocks Odysseus’ irrational decisions as he roams around like a restless child, always looking for the first sign of trouble. While he is waylaid by storms, detained by a giant one-eyed Cyclops, and led astray by a charming sorceress, Odysseus barely considers those he has disowned, and purposefully bides his time so to speak in relentless pursuit of opportune moments to prove his worth. Just as men strive to gain greatness, so too do they get side-tracked in their endeavours, and Haynes summons her readers to consider more openly the ways in which women like Penelope could survive without their lovers.

Haynes ranges well beyond the male-centric scope of The Iliad, as well, to highlight how there is more to being a hero than creating war and causing conflict to solve issues. Oenone, Paris’ wife, is abandoned after he pursues Menelaus’ wife, Helen of Troy, “the face that launched a thousand ships”—from which the novel draws its title. Helen’s beauty is believed to be what drove Paris and Menelaus to fight for her affections in the war after she embarks on a scandalous affair. Evident in Ovid’s Heroides, Paris writes to Helen “No woman of beauty is like you,” which points out how his love for her will “attempt to conquer any obstacle” in his way. A betrayed Oenone is thus left to raise their son on her own. Menelaus, on the other hand, despite his efforts to retrieve his wife loses Helen to Paris and all hell breaks loose. As a result, Menelaus recklessly decides to rally his troops to “bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans and slaves.” While Oenone resents Paris who she swore loved her and their son and holds him accountable for the grief he has inflicted, she spares herself from giving him the satisfaction that he has won. Instead, he lies wounded and begging before her. Both Oenone and Menelaus are victims of their partner’s deception. Yet while Menelaus resorts to selfish drastic measures to claim back his wife, Oenone, directs her pain in a more rational manner. Instead, she selflessly accepts her responsibility to be the best mother she can be for her child and renounces the defining characteristics of what heroism was believed to be, simply by surviving without the man she once loved by her side.

Haynes refers to The Iliad in the afterword to A Thousand Ships, as quite rightly “one of the great foundational texts on wars and warriors, men and masculinity.” However, unlike Homer who fails to acknowledge the valuable contribution women made, Haynes conveys how heroism is something that everyone regardless of gender can exhibit through various forms other than fighting between men alone. I thoroughly admired how Haynes reconstructs the tale of the Trojan war through an assortment of female characters, including those more minor women who have always been side-lined in relation to its male-centric history.

In conjunction with The Iliad, Ovid’s Heroides plays an essential role in Haynes’ novel through the device of letters inspired by the heroines of Greek mythology, “in address to their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them.” Penelope writes to her husband Odysseus who was obliged to join the Trojan voyage and help return Helen of Troy back to Menelaus. However, what she did not realise was how long he would be away for, that he would miss his son growing up, or that she could risk losing him altogether on his travels to another woman. During those twenty years, Penelope, similarly to Oenone, is left to raise their child singlehandedly, and anxiously awaits the return of Odysseus. Yet unlike Oenone, Penelope knew that Odysseus still loved her and always intended to return to where his duties lay as a father and as a King to his people on the Island of Ithaca.

Due to not being as familiar with Greek mythology as others may be, I was fully expecting A Thousand Ships to be a somewhat challenging reading experience. As such, I found Haynes’s brief List of Characters before the beginning of the book to be a very helpful introduction for guided reference, in that it encouraged me to seek out who they are and how they all relate. The further I read, the more I understood how these courageous women dominate the novel and how Haynes passionately reimagines them throughout their personal journeys of resilience. It becomes more apparent amid the harrowing repercussions of armed conflict that the “casualties of war aren't just the ones who die,” but the ones who, by further extension, fight for survival amid the war’s trials and tribulations. These include the Trojan women who are captured and become exposed to the sexual desires of Greek men, Briseis who mourns the loss of her slaughtered relatives, and young, selfless mothers like Oenone and Penelope who are cast aside by their ignorant husbands. Each woman has in turn “waited long enough” to be heard, and Haynes grants them all the honourable voice that they deserve in their stories. Given the compact size of the novel, which is just short of 350 pages, Haynes does a commendable job at displaying a diverse range of heroines who were involved in one of the most notorious events ever recounted in Greek mythology.