cover image PENELOPEIA

PENELOPEIA

Jane Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, , with illus. by Heather Hurst. . Godine, $30 (272pp) ISBN 978-1-56792-206-6

Penelope, wife of Odysseus, embarks on an epic adventure of her own after her husband returns from his wanderings in this artfully crafted work, an extended narrative poem in the style of Homer (via Richard Lattimore's translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey). The book opens with a startling revelation: while Odysseus has been off on his journeys, his wife, Penelope, has been raising twin daughters, Ailanthis and Nerianne, who were conceived just before he left and have now become young women. Both have ambitions of their own, and after a brief family conference, Penelope and her two daughters visit the Prophetess of Pytho to clarify their respective fates. Following the oracle's prediction, Nerianne elects to stay behind with her and exercise her healing gift of song. Penelope and Ailanthis, meanwhile, set off to visit Helen of Troy and seek a cure for the twins' brother, Telemachos, who has been grievously wounded in an attack by a mysterious beast. After their time in Troy, the women move on to an encounter with Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons, who tries to entice both Ailanthis and Penelope to remain with her. Rawlings shows a flair for the format with her lively, smoothly flowing narrative verse ("I could not keep my smile within me. So there we stood:/two victors flushed with success of the battle or the hunt"), though she occasionally lets her modern values leak into the storytelling. Overall, the author turns a potentially dry, academic conceit into vibrant fiction, bringing to new life the female figures who played a pivotal role in one of the seminal works of world literature. (May)