BOOK REVIEW: The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood is a lush re-imagining of the Greek myth of Perseus and the slaying of Medusa. The story is centered on Perseus but comes at the story from the perspective of the three women who shaped him: his mother, Danae; his wife, Andromeda; and his victim, Medusa.

Danae is a princess of Argos. When her father hears a prophecy declaring that Danae’s son will be the death of him, he locks her away to keep her from ever marrying. Mythology would have it that Zeus impregnated her. But in this novel it was a local young man who found a way to sneak into her prison. Furious and terrified when he learns she is pregnant, Danae’s father attempts to have her killed by putting her in a small boat and setting it adrift. Danae is rescued – and Perseus is born.

Medusa is a member of a small tribe of women, the Gorgons, who have been abused by men and sought refuge away from the world that leaves women powerless. They are self-sufficient and content. Snakes are their guardians. Medusa is not a monster. She is simply one of the most highly regarded among the women. But one day, the 18-year-old Perseus, desperate to prove himself a man, comes across the women.

Andromeda is the youngest daughter of a wealthy nomad. Just before she is to be wed to a kind local man, a sandstorm blows up. The priest says the gods are angry. To appease the god, Andromeda offers herself. She is to be lashed to the rocks on the seaside for a night and a day. The winds are already slowing when Perseus spots her from the ship he is on. He “rescues” her against her will.

The novel shows Perseus in a very different light than the old myths. Far from heroic, he is an insecure, boastful coward who constructs his own untrue story after demonizing Medusa and forcing his will upon women whose own wishes he ignores. Heywood does a wonderful job of showing Perseus’ own trauma, so that he is not a one-dimensional villain. Nevertheless, it is the women who are heroic in this tale.