Review of Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood"s Iokaste
About.com Rating
The Bottom Line
With the exception of a few odd moments, it was very easy to stay engrossed in Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood's story of Oedipus, as told by his wife/mother Iokaste when she was on the brink of suicide.
Pros
Cons
Description
Guide Review - Review of Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood's Iokaste
How could Oedipus marry his mother? Surely he could see how much older she was than he? And how did she not know he was her son? These are two of the questions Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood answer through the perspective of Jocasta. Jocasta marries Laius, king of Thebes, at a fairly typical age for someone of the period and she conceives immediately. When a prophecy predicts dire consequence to any child of Laius and Jocasta, Laius orders the child destroyed, but a tender-hearted courtier has mercy on the child and doesn't even tell the heart-broken mother. So Jocasta has no idea that it is even possible for her to marry her son.
Kept young and beautiful partially through the divine magic of the cloak of Harmonia, when she meets Oedipus twenty years later, she is still ravishing. She's also a rich and powerful queen. So what if she's fifteen year's older? Unfortunately, both husband and wife keep crucial secrets from each other -- secrets which if revealed at the beginning would have prevented the disaster. The sad, inexorable conclusion is reached with few surprises, but with lavish attention to detail and an interesting reading of "Tiresias".
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
The Bottom Line
With the exception of a few odd moments, it was very easy to stay engrossed in Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood's story of Oedipus, as told by his wife/mother Iokaste when she was on the brink of suicide.
Pros
- Presents a fresh and feminine perspective.
- Provides the necessary historical and mythological background.
- Tells a good story.
Cons
- Makes the Theban women sound like Minoans in their bare-chestedness (may be accurate).
- 21st century attitudes towards appropriate ages for marriage/motherhood/grandmotherhood.
Description
- The Oedipus myth retold.
- First person narrative from the perspective of the mother-wife.
- Shows Creon (Kreon) in a noble light.
- Ties in the story of the House of Thebes and the myth of Pelops and family.
Guide Review - Review of Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood's Iokaste
How could Oedipus marry his mother? Surely he could see how much older she was than he? And how did she not know he was her son? These are two of the questions Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood answer through the perspective of Jocasta. Jocasta marries Laius, king of Thebes, at a fairly typical age for someone of the period and she conceives immediately. When a prophecy predicts dire consequence to any child of Laius and Jocasta, Laius orders the child destroyed, but a tender-hearted courtier has mercy on the child and doesn't even tell the heart-broken mother. So Jocasta has no idea that it is even possible for her to marry her son.
Kept young and beautiful partially through the divine magic of the cloak of Harmonia, when she meets Oedipus twenty years later, she is still ravishing. She's also a rich and powerful queen. So what if she's fifteen year's older? Unfortunately, both husband and wife keep crucial secrets from each other -- secrets which if revealed at the beginning would have prevented the disaster. The sad, inexorable conclusion is reached with few surprises, but with lavish attention to detail and an interesting reading of "Tiresias".
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
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