A Thousand Ships

Drawing on Greek mythology and famous works such as Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, A Thousand Ships highlights the way women’s experiences are often marginalized in literature. Primarily set during the aftermath of the Trojan War, the novel examines the motives, emotions, and suffering of numerous mythological women including Hecabe, Penthesilea, and Thetis. While these women are canonical figures in works of epic Greek poetry, those epics frequently center…

A Thousand Ships repeatedly investigates the sexist and dehumanizing notion that women are only valuable when they are possessed or dominated by a man. The Trojan War as a whole embodies this mindset, since the conflict begins after the Trojan prince Paris convinces Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, to run away with him. Menelaus and the Greek leaders who rally behind him sail to Troy to reclaim Helen, who they…

In A Thousand Ships, the events of the Trojan War and its aftermath showcase the high cost of violence and excessive pride. While many men die during the 10-year siege on Troy, the novel focuses primarily on the suffering women those men leave behind. Aeneas disappears, leaving his wife Creusa to die alone in the city’s burning streets, and Hector’s death leaves Hecabe bereft and Andromache a widow. Many of the Trojan women…

A Thousand Ships uses the frame story of the Muse Calliope and the poet to critically examine mythological narratives and reimagine well-known tales in a way that returns agency to female characters. While Calliope has been summoned by a male poet who wants to write about the women involved in the Trojan War, the Muse refuses to make the creative process easy for him. Instead, she leads his poem in unexpected directions and forces him…