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The Author on His Work
The assembled chiefs waiting at Aulis for a favourable wind are only at the
very beginning of their three-thousand-year-old careers as literary and
dramatic characters. It is all before them: first in Homeric epic, then in
Greek classical drama, then in a variety of European guises from the theatre
of Racine to the opera of Gluck. The sacrifice at Aulis represents a sort of
obscure mythical prelude, a time when the true natures of the actors have not
yet been defined. I had the feeling, in writing the novel, that I was still
getting in on the act very early, that things were still fluid, that I could
give these people motives and manners and speech forms without being caught
up in preconceived notions of the heroic. I experienced this as a very
liberating factor, enabling me to make a sort of bridge between those times
and our own.
Discussion
Questions
1. Barry Unsworth's book is both a retelling of the story of the Greek army as
it readies itself to invade Troy and a commentary on the politics of recorded
history. Why are the Singer's songs the "Songs of the Kings"? How does the
Singer both record history and affect it?
2. In Unsworth's retelling of this ancient story, the characters appear to be
modern people with recognizable motives. Despite the ancient religious
beliefs, the urge to gain power and wealth are unchanged. How do these
political and military figures behave in universal ways that you see in today's
world leaders? And how do they resemble the characters you know from Homer or
Aeschylus or Euripides?
3. Religion plays different roles for each of the characters. For Calchas, the
natural world holds signs from the gods that he faithfully struggles to
interpret. Agamemnon takes comfort in the religious justification of his
daughter's sacrifice. And Odysseus uses religion to manipulate people for his
own advantage. What do you think of the complexity of the characters' beliefs,
and does the role of religion in politics differ today?
4. Why does Calchas lose his ability to divine the will of the gods? How do
his personal insecurities and his political ties affect his religious belief?
5. Sisipyla's story is inextricably tied to that of Iphigeneia. As a slave, her
story will never be told by the Singer, but she is a critical player and an
intelligent and resourceful character. What is Sisipyla's significance in this
book? What do you think of the fact that her escape from Aulis makes its way
into the songs of later singers, "when sensibilities and habits of thought had
changed"?
6. Why does Iphigeneia decide to be sacrificed, despite Sisipyla's offer of
escape? She knows nothing of the political machinations that led to her
sacrifice, and she agrees to it believing that she will be honoring Artemis. Is
she blinded by a commitment to honor and nobility that she shares with her
father, or is her decision sincere and fully informed?
7. Poimenos is a humble and unaffected boy. Why, in the end, does he choose the
Singer's stories over Calchas's divinations? His disappointment in Calchas's
failure to speak his mind to Agamemnon is a part of it, but what does he see
in the Singer's secular stories that moves him?
8. Odysseus is a conniving and powerful figure here, a very modern-seeming
politician. In Homer's classic tale, set after the Trojan War, Odysseus relies
on his quick wit for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces
during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca. How does Unsworth's very human
Odysseus compare to the one you might remember from reading The Odyssey?
9. Agamemnon's hold of power over the assembled Greek troops is shaken by the
unceasing wind and the unrest among the other leaders. How do his advisors
play on his desire to keep his power, and how does his desire to maintain a
coalition foreshadow the empires of the future? What did you think of the
tribalism that dictated most of the loyalties among the Greeks?
10. What did you think of the Ajaxes (the Larger and the Lesser)? Their
slapstick humor and brilliant bumbling lightens the mood of the book, and,
like Odysseus and some others, they pay the Singer to advertise their plans
for games. What role do they play in the book and in the Songs?
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