Whom the Gods Would Destroy

Oh, this book. 

Whom the Gods Would Destroy was written in 1970. I first encountered it in my high school mythology class in the mid-90s. 

I'm sure our dozens of copies originally had that dust jacket. 

However, this is how I think of it. Plain green and awesome. 

I adored this book when I read it in school. I wanted to keep it. But it would be years before I got a copy. I can't remember when I first bought it. A long time ago now, I think, and sadly, I think right now is the first time I've read it all the way through since high school, despite truly loving the book. I've started it several times and gotten distracted. But this time, I committed and even finished it in only three days. It's a solid book. 374 pages of decently small print. 

So the book covers the entire time period of the Trojan War, from a little before to right after. It is my favorite book on the war, hands down, and would cement Odysseus as my favorite Greek male and Hector as my favorite Trojan male for the rest of my life. 

The book is written from the point of view of Helios, who was raised by two Trojan workers. His foster mother works in the kitchens and his foster father is a horse trainer. Helios' mother was a young slave who died in childbirth and his father? Well, that's a mystery. Helios himself believes it's King Priam, though there are some that think it was a Cretan slave who ran away after doing some paintings in the throne room. 

Helios' life is extraordinarily action-packed. He's not fully claimed by Priam, makes an enemy of Paris (that asshole), and a friend of Cassandra. Cassandra has probably her best showing in any historical fiction in this book. She's calm, intelligent and likeable. Hector takes a liking to him, so he was my first favorite adult in the book, but he's quickly supplanted by Odysseus. During the first battle, Helios watches his foster father killed by Achilles and ends up being captured. Achilles keeps him alive as a companion to his son, Neoptolemus, with the understanding that at some point in the future, the two boys will fight to the death as Achaean vs. Trojan. Odysseus trains Helios in combat, becoming the closest thing to a father Helios ever had. 

As time passes, Helios learns more useful skills and becomes a young man. He and Neo become strong friends, to the point that when Neo realizes how long Helios has been hiding his actual sword skills, Neo sets him free and lets him return to Troy rather than have to fight him. Helios is not particularly trusted in Troy, so he's "banished" to become the horse trainer for Aeneas, who he becomes close with. As much as I said I liked Hector, Aeneas is actually given a better portrayal than Hector, so upon finishing this now, I think I put him in second place to Odysseus as favorite adult. Hector was honestly in this far less than I remember. And I'm not sure why I love Andromache so much. I thought it was this book, but she was barely in it. 

Helios goes back to the Achaean camp as a spy and spends the latter part of the book going back and forth between Troy and Achaean. He's always a Trojan, but he does have a strict loyalty to Odysseus. 

I'm sure I'm making this sound way more dull than it deserves. If you like historical fiction and the Trojan War, I could not give a higher recommendation than I would give this book. It's a standout for sure. It's appropriate for high school age kids. It's not dulled down for younger kids but it's not as firmly adult as The Silence of the Girls was. There is sex, but it's mostly offscreen or written about in more hinted at ways than obvious ones. And there's definitely violence, but it's not that graphic. It's just good. It's so, so good. I get so wrapped up in it that I don't want to put it down for anything. 

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going next with my Greek run. I'm considering skipping Circe for now and going to Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize from Esther Friesner's series. However, jumping to them means skipping over a reread of Nefertiti's two books, which come first in the series. That messes with my orderly mind, but I think I'm going to do it, then come back to Nefertiti and the rest of that series after I'm done with Greece. I have those two rereads plus Circe to go. I do have another book on the Trojan War, but it's nonfic, so I won't be reviewing it and I can work on that whenever. And I've got one about biblical Esther, which I may tackle after Greece. I don't think I've ever read anything from the Persian empire before.