Un-silencing the Girls: Critical Classical Reception in Feminist Retellings of Greek Myths

Abstract

In recent feminist retellings of Greek myths, the Trojan War has become the preferred mytho-historical setting for reexamining gender performativity in the ancient world. The Iliad and the Odyssey are foundational texts for how Western culture has historically characterized heroic masculinity, and, in contrast, tragic femininity. Modern novels such as Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls (2018), its sequel Women of Troy (2021), and Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships (2019) turn the focus to the largely silent women of these epics. Through the voices of figures such as Briseis and Andromache, Barker and Haynes adopt a critical narrative of masculine ideals, including the glamorization of war and brutality, in order to highlight women’s endurance of sexual violence and victimization as a result of men’s pursuit of glory.

As this article explores, by enabling the once silenced women of Troy to voice their experiences of rape and enslavement, these three modern retellings challenge both ancient and contemporary notions of ideal masculinity while further highlighting the historical longevity of sexual violence against women as a consequence of men’s wars.