Were you more drawn to Ariadne's or Phaedra's chapters? Why do you think the author chose to include both of their perspectives?

Were you more drawn to Ariadne's or Phaedra's chapters? Why do you think the author chose to include both of their perspectives?

Definitely Ariadne. Her story line seems so real to me. Her sister was less experienced in the ways and means of life. Ariadne is stronger in her Father's eyes, he sees Phaedra as still a "little girl." Their interactions with Father, Mother and other members of the community gives depth and differing perspectives of life in Crete.

I was more drawn to Ariadne. Once she realized her lot in life, she became a good mother and a good wife although initially blind to Dionysus’s heart. But Phaedra just seemed like a spoiled brat, to me always discontented

Ariadne. She was able to look at things the way they were and do whatever needed to be done, then move on. Phaedra just wanted what she wanted.

I seem to be the only one with a different take so far. I had high hopes for Ariadne while she still lived on Crete. She tried to develop a relationship (of sorts) with her brother, the minotaur and then defied her father by running away from the husband he picked for her AFTER betraying her brother and ending Crete's hold over Athens. So I got a little bored during the sections where she whined, cried, waited to die on Naxos while first bemoaning her abandonment and then wondering when Dionysus would return. It seemed so contradictory to the way she behaved at the beginning of her story. Where was the independent, fighting spirit? although, I will concede that her greatest strength was as a mother to her sons. Phaedra, on the other hand, recognized the weakness of her husband immediately. She acted boldly to exert her control on Athens without being obvious about it. She was responsible for its growth and domination.

In some ways, the differences in the sisters' lives reminded me of the constant debate/research/opinions pitting working mothers (or women in general) against stay at home mothers.

I was not more drawn to one than the other. I thought the author did an excellent job of showing two different individuals with their contrasting strengths and weaknesses, and the story does get more interesting when Phaedra enters it as a narrator. I speculate that this was necessary to move the action forward (we needed to know what happened on Crete after Ariadne left, for example). I also think the two women show us a broader, more realistic range of the ways that women struggle with asserting themselves as individuals in a world that is still largely controlled by men.

I identified equally with Ariadne’s love for her children and with Phaedra's feeling of being trapped (especially as she had no control over getting pregnant). I could identify with Phaedra’s effort to make a place for herself among the king’s advisors, and also with Ariadne’s desire to travel with her husband and to find out more about his rites. She loved her life on Naxos but was not willing to ignore problems that she saw, either.

Neither is meant to be a “role model,” obviously, but side by side they make the case for valuing women as equals, letting us be free to make our own choices.

I liked Ariadne more because she was simply a nicer person but Phaedra was more interesting. Isn’t the bad girl always more interesting? You might not want to be her pal but you want to hear all the juicy gossip about her.

I was more drawn to Phaedra's storyline as I liked her personality better and provided for more "drama" in her situations and her chapters usually ended with a type of cliff hanger.

But, by the end I was liking Ariadne's more than Phaedra as Ariadne's personality and outlook to life was more realistic and less selfish than Phaedra's.

I was more drawn to Ariadne. It was fuller than her sister's story. Her character arc was more involved, moving from trying to do the right thing to barely surviving to finding peace to understanding that her peace was built on an illusion. She grew from the beginning of the book to the end. Phaedra did too, but not as dramatically. She learned how to wield her power, but lost herself in the process. She felt more lost to me than Ariadne and far more selfish in her motivations, more like her father than her sister. Ariadne sacrificed herself to save her children and the Maenads and their children. She recognized the danger Dionysus presented and fought against it to her own peril. But her children lived quiet, unremarkable lives because of her efforts. She freed them from the influence of the gods, including their father. Phaedra acted selfishly and doomed them herself and Theseus' son.

I enjoyed Ariadne and her chapters more. It would be easy to be her friend. Phaedra's chapters seemed much darker and I think it was be more draining to befriend her, although Phaedra definitely was more in need of a friend. and She was so alone at the end and I felt sad about that.