I learned to throw the javelin and the discus, to hunt wild boar in the mountains, and when I was small, to wrestle in the courtyard with the sons of the noblemen, my body glistening with scented oil.Ībove all, I learned to run. I wore the short tunic of the athlete in training. Naturally, my father wanted a son, and against the advice of his ministers, he made a substitute of me. I was the only child of Iasius, king of Arcadia. I would be watching from a high window in the women's quarters, fighting down the nausea. On challenge days there were dancing bears, poets creating ballads, traders from the Orient with spices and precious stones. My father was too shrewd to turn away the young men willing to risk everything, or the thousands who came to see them race. And after that first foolish challenge, no one could have stopped the athletes from coming to compete, as word spread throughout Greece of the ultimate running contest - with a kingdom for a prize and death to the loser. "What you have to gain is not worth losing your life." But they were so sure they could outrun me, a mere girl. I always tried to talk them out of running against me. ExcerptĪ marriage offer started the series of death races that have made me famous. In three love stories spun from Greek myths, Clemence McLaren, author of Inside the Walls of Troy and Waiting for Odysseus, presents these new retellings - with all their longing, hope, fear, and love - from the woman's point of view. A mysterious suitor is finally found, but Aprhrodite decrees that Psyche must descend into Hades to earn his love.
She is devastated by her father's choice of a husband but Aphrodite has another plan for her too.įinally, nobody wants to marry the beautiful Psyche.
Then there is Andromeda whose beauty rivals that of any goddess. What she doesn't know is that Aphrodite has given her blessing to a race that will change everything. Young lovers offered gifts and prayers to her, the goddess of love and beauty, in hopes of receiving her blessings.Ĭontent as one of the best athletes in her father's kingdom, Atalanta rebels against attempts at an arranged marriage. The goddess Aphrodite was adored and feared by gods and mortals alike none were immune to her power.
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