Atalanta: The dazzling story of the only female Argonaut

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As she is swept into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis's warning, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions. I loved learning about her upbringing and the fate she was destined to live, but I was mostly moved by her love stories. Through the eyes of a strong and unbending heroine, Atalanta weaves together some of the most exciting myths: the Argonauts' quest, Hypsipyle and the women of Lemnos, Hippomenes's footrace. She provides vivid descriptions of Atalanta as a warrior, of her backbreaking, painful work rowing the vessel, as well as of her thrilling and excruciating foot races, wrestling matches, and archery competitions.

Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes shining, her tunic loosely belted around her waist, and the smoothly curved bow in her hand. She has an incredibly fascinating backstory and I thoroughly enjoyed each time she gave one of the men a run for their money. It’s almost a year since lovely Caitlin Raynor sent me a surprise copy of Atalanta by Jennifer Saint and with the paperback release a month away it’s high time I got round to sharing my review. I love the beautiful covers that take Greek vase motifs and make them sparkly (not that I’m superficial or anything…!There’s such a visual quality to the writing that it has a cinematic quality I thought was astounding. I also really appreciated the way this book dealt with the romance and motherhood aspects of Atalanta’s story. It’s one thing to know what happens in a myth, but another to dig deep into why it happens and what drives these characters to make the decisions that they do. I also really liked the way the end of the story was dealt with, providing a unique, and, again, true-feeling conclusion to this heroic woman’s tale. Ariadne is her first novel, Elektra is her second, and Atalanta is her latest mesmerising mythological retelling.

Regardless of that though, this was a fast paced read, Saint has a lovely balance between setting the scene and moving the story forward and her style if very easy to read and enjoy.In Atalanta, we find a powerful woman who never questions her own value, even when faced with the doubters of the world. Saint has a truly gorgeous writing style and the world of Ancient Greece really comes to life in her prose. Elsewhere, Jason is preparing to set out aboard the Argo on his mission to obtain the Golden Fleece from the King of Colchis. Imagine if a man found one of us here without her, came across a nymph bathing alone, disrobed and vulnerable?

What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. She doesn’t want to harm another woman; she risks losing her protected status with Artemis; and she jeopardizes her core identity as independent and self-sufficient. I saw that it pleased her to have a mortal grow up in her image, and I was glad of it, too, even if I didn’t quite understand just how much gratitude I truly owed her.

Greek tragedy, of course, is pretty much non-stop gloom, punctuated by tension, betrayal, suicide, incest and/or maiming, before a bit more gloom to round things off; and female characters are often on the receiving end of the worst treatment tragedy has to offer. Although romance isn’t a big part of Atalanta’s story, I also enjoyed following her relationships with first Meleager and then Hippomenes and I appreciated the way Saint found a way to retell the myth from a feminist perspective without portraying all of the men in a negative light. This is a must-read for any fans of fantasy stories like “Circe” that feature strong, female characters. Where with the story of Odysseus, for example, I know each of the different foes he came across on his journey, this time around every day of the quest something new and unexpected came along. Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason's band of Argonauts.