Whether by accident or design, this book’s timing is perfect. It takes a well-fashioned battering ram to the weakening walls of a perpetuated patriarchy. Ariadne’s position in Greek mythology is generally relegated to being the supplier of thread for Theseus to use while pursuing the Minotaur in King Minos’ labyrinth. The story is conventionally about Theseus’ heroism. Not this time.

Ariadne is the daughter of the cruel King Minos and his wife, Pasiphae. Ariadne and her sister, Phaedra, live in a palace but have lives dominated and restricted by their father. Zeus’ trickery allows a bull to mate with Pasiphae and the resulting son is a blend of human and bull – the Minotaur – who is imprisoned in a labyrinth and fed 14 Athenian youths each year. Theseus, an Athenian prince, is to be one of them. Ariadne and Phaedra help him kill the Minotaur. Ariadne escapes with Theseus, but is then abandoned on Naxos only to be saved by a god, Dionysus. But neither male – mortal or god – is a hero in this story.

This is an epic tale of male deceit and duplicity, told from Ariadne’s and Phaedra’s perspectives in a refreshing reversal of viewpoint. This is not a story of masculine heroism, courage and revenge in an action blockbuster narrated by a fawning (male) Homer. Now, with this feminine perspective, the focus is on agency – and the lack of it – in a male world. Even Medusa – the terror-inducing character – is drawn sympathetically.

Both Ariadne and Phaedra vow to not lead passive lives, but ‘… the truth of womanhood [is that] however blameless a life we lead, the passions and greed of men could bring us to ruin’. They do, however, have an excellent champion in the author.

Reviewed by Bob Moore