well, let's be clear about something. The Trojan war wasn't about Helen. The romances try to say that, but that's entirely inconsistent with what we know about ancient Greek culture.
The Trojan war was fought because a) Menelaus' honor was slighted, and b) because Paris committed the second worst violation of the guest-host relationship possible.
And those were brought up in the book. (I just finished it on Saturday.) It was written in first person from a fictional character's POV (more fictional than the others in the sense that she is never mentioned in the Illiad or Odyssey or Greek Mythology, but created for the purposes of the novel), and she reflects on what a terrible thing it was for Helen to betray her king both by sleeping with Paris but even worse for helping Paris and his men ransack the royal treasury. So Paris, who was under the sacred guest-host relationship, not only stole his host's wife but also all his money and possessions. He was the worst kind of thief. But everyone in Troy just loves Helen. The protagonist Anaxandra can't understand why they do--Helen and Paris have violated so many sacred covenants.
And honor was important to the Greeks. That and the fact that all the suitors of Helen were made to take an oath that they would aide her husband if anyone ever tried to take Helen away from him. They all took the oath before it was decided who would marry Helen, so they did it hoping that they would be the one chosen. Oaths were sacred, too, so Agammemnon and Menelaus could call on every man who took the oath to go fight Troy. (Still, from a modern perspective, it seems like a lot of death and trouble to appease a slight against a man's honor, even if it was a serious slight.)
Goddess of Yesterday was an interesting take on the people behind the Trojan War. I always find folklore retellings fascinating because the best always are a mix between the original and adapting for a modern audience. The biggest difference is the fleshing out of characters to make them more "realistic." That wasn't the purpose of storytelling in the Greek myths or Grimms fairytales. But that is the purpose of storytelling today--what the readers are looking for--so that is what authors do when they explore these archetypal stories that are still with us. And, there were times that it didn't completely work. You are right, e, in saying that the romances make Helen more important than she is. In this book, Helen had to be important because the book was about why the people did what they did--the motivations of the characters that lead to a horrible war. And, as I said before, there were times that I didn't completely buy everyone swooning over Helen and doing whatever she asked just because she was oh-so beautiful. But you kind of had to "suspend your disbelief" and buy into that for the novel to work, so in the end I did. Overall, though, I enjoyed the book. As I said before, if you like Greek mythology and folklore retellings (which will probably be very few if any of you
), then I think you will like it.
However, I think you need a background to enjoy this one--
Goddess of Yesterday. You need to have some knowledge of the events leading up to the Trojan War to get what is going on. The nice thing about Jane Yolen's series (which I discussed above) was that they were entertaining in and of themselves. Knowing Greek mythology could give you added insights, but the stories carried themselves. I would read Yolen's books before
Goddess.
