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Inside the Walls of Troy
by Clemence McLaren
Simon Pulse, 2004. 199 pages.
Reviewed by Christy Risser-Milne
Clemence McLaren, teacher, scholar, writer, and lover of the resident truths in mythology, once again treats us to a “what if . . .” account of the women caught up in the Trojan War. Each in her own turn, McLaren allows Helen, whose fabled beauty launched the war, and Cassandra, the mystic and seer whose visions were always tragic and always true, to tell the story of the war.
Helen, who marvels at the realization that she is beautiful, grows from a tomboy-like child into a woman over whom thousands lose their lives. Amazingly adept at ignoring her own culpability in the war until it is too late to experience any redemption, Helen flits through life, and her telling of the story, claiming a rather annoying innocence in leaving her child, cheating on her husband, and drawing the ire of the innocent victims of the war her duplicity has wrought.
Cassandra, on the other hand, belies her clichéd name and is anything but an incarnate harbinger of doom. True, her visions are ones of illness and death, but she clearly feels them deep within her Self, dying a little with each vision coming to reality. Cassandra, knowing full well that Helen’s presence in Troy would be directly responsible for the destruction of her family and her family’s kingdom, befriended Helen. Never wholly trusting her, Cassandra still loved Helen as a sister.
It is in this humanization of the women from these ancient tales that McLaren provides readers with a sense of the story’s larger importance. These are not simply stories of battles and heroes and the gods’ impetuous interference in the business of humanity -- they are timeless account of human nature, in both its glory and its shame.
Ever the teacher, McLaren provides an epilogue, giving readers several possible outcomes to the end of the battle for Helen and Troy. Historically, no one can really know what happened; all of that has been lost to the ages. Instead, McLaren gives us a glimpse of several plausible possibilities, each of which has been given by different ancient writers.
McLaren herself became fascinated with Greek mythology as a sixth grader, when she picked up The Odyssey. Today, she imparts these stories, and presumably the larger life lessons present within them, to her sixth grade students, giving them a gift far greater than many teachers do.
“I’m still telling stories to my students, teaching them to listen for silenced voices,” she writes.
We are the better for her listening to these voices and sharing with us their stories.
Christy Risser-Milne is a freelance writer and photographer living in Boston, Massachusetts.
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