Ariadne

the fun part about a lot of greek myths is that there is room for interpretation with why various figures did various things, and i think that this book has an interesting take on ariadne x theseus, as well as phaedra x theseus, but falls short really exploring the complex relationship between ariadne and dionysus (mostly because this book paints dionysus as a golden retriever husband and not a twisted sexual deviant cult leader)

the connecting thread of motherhood and the role of mothers in the home grows thin and almost invisible throughout the story, especially with regards to phaedra and her sisterly relationship with ariadne. i think that the emphasis of starting a hero's (e.g. dionysus, theseus, heracles etc) story with the mother was quite stark to me, however. will be looking to see how authors approach this in the future

also, needed more hera. not enough pissed off hera, because most greek myth stories are equally as much about pissed off hera as they are about zeus and his uncontrollable sperm donations

but good discussions of why dionysus differs from the other olympians, and why that kind of weaves into his whole schtick as a god. felt for the dude at times, then remembered that he's the root of the term “bacchanal”, which imo is used too liberally these days given the origins in uhhh tearing people apart

i know this sounds like a lot of criticisms for a 4 star review but i think just about everything else was knocked out of the park. ran out of correctly colored tabs several times throughout reading this, hi can someone pls send more thx