Luciana Cavallaro

Fate of a woman in a patriarchal society
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With patriarchal societies it is always the same, be it an archaic Greek, an Arabic, an Indian or any other patriarchal society: Women are moved like chess pieces among men, and love is not expected to happen. Women are never asked, always used, and what they really want is not allowed. Such is the fate of Helen who was made responsible for the Trojan War and the fall of Troy. In her own words the story tells much differently.
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Interesting the author's attempt to describe the process of separation of truth and myth by the introduction of a first historian into the story. Not fully convincing is that he is a fully-developed historian from the beginning; would have been better to see him developing step by step the concept of writing history, and then at the end to realize that he created something new: Writing of History.
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Not fully convincing is the author's try to weave in Ranke-Graves' romantic idea of an ancient matriarchy which gave way to patriarchy. Besides the fact that it is not true, such a cultural change cannot come about so quickly, and what young Helen likes is simply girlish: Dancing, Jewelry, etc. Furthermore, the reasons of war are rarely simply man's greed.
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When reading this short story quite another plot came to me: Why not depicting Helen as the "bad guy" who plotted it all? Maybe she made Theseus "raping" her in order to gain the social prestige of being deflowered by such a famous man? Maybe she charmingly made her father marry her with Menelaos because he is the brother of powerful Agamemnon? Maybe she intentionally seduced poor Paris in order to bring war about Troy and to capture all the wealth for herself, then letting her sister kill Agamemnon, afterwards? So, she being left as the true ruler and winner? Women can be so cunning and plotting, don't they have us men all in their hands?

Farewell letter concentrating the myths of Minos and Theseus in a nutshell
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In a farewell letter princess Phaedra, daughter of king Minos and wife of Theseus, tells the story how it came that she had to poison herself and thus dying away while writing this letter. Along the way of her account all the known and lesser known myths around Minos and Theseus are told and combined to a greater story culminating in Phaedra's end. The enrichment and refinement of the myths into living stories is done well. The language is pleasent and the story unfolds (mostly) dramatically reasonable. It is an easy read providing an agreeable access to the classical traditions.