But it isn't my adolescence that we're going to discuss, rather that of Odysseus and his (future) wife, Penelope; that of his lifelong best friend and behind-the-scenes protector, Mentor; that of Helen of Sparta (later "of Troy"); that of Idomeneus, prince (later king) of Crete. In a reimagining of the younger years of arguably the final true hero of ancient Greece's "Age of Heroes", wily Odysseus and his friends set off on a series of accidental adventures that will shape the remainders of their (already fictitious) lives. Powerhouse Jane Yolen (The Devil's Arithmetic, How Do Dinosaurs...?, Owl Moon, Children of the Wolf, and hundreds more that you probably read growing up) and author Robert J. Harris (Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries, The World Goes Loki series, Young Legends, Young Heroes), team up for Odysseus in the Serpent Maze by taking all we know about the Ithacan king's famed life on the ancient Mediterranean and rewinding the story to his early teenage years.
We begin with Prince Odysseus and his pal Mentor getting lost at sea on their way home to Ithaca after a visit with Odysseus's grandfather, Autolycus. After being adrift for days, they are picked up by pirates, who are holding two important captives aboard their ship: Princess Helen of Sparta and her cousin, Penelope. The famous foursome spend the rest of the novel making their way home, but certainly not easily. Without too many spoilers, fans of Greek mythology will be pleased to see some old friends, including the irresistible sirens, the genius Daedalus and his apprentice Praxios, King Deucalion (son of King Minos of Labyrinth and Minotaur fame), the goddess Athena, Silenus the satyr, the monstrous serpent Ladon, along with the "wine-dark sea"* and "dawn" with her "rosy fingers"* (*taken directly from Homer's Odyssey).
It was, once again, my daughter who requested commanded me to read this book after getting a free copy of it to keep from her school library. Copyrighted in 2001 (2000 say some sources?), I later learned that this is the first of the collaborative efforts between Yolen and Harris on ancient Greek heroes. Their Young Heroes series includes a number of famous Greek protagonists: Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons, Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast, Jason and the Gorgon's Blood. Being quite the fan of Atalanta herself, I may have to recommend these to my Greek mythology-loving daughter! Regardless, Yolen and Harris do a lovely job of humanizing the characters in Odysseus in the Serpent Maze. More often than not, it is easy to forget that the characters of the ancient world were, first and foremost, humans (or, at the very least, created by humans). The heroes of old were not always heroes; they were children first. And, despite Odysseus's hatred of being referred to as a "boy" in this book, at age 13, he totally is.
Fun, accessible, and clearly crafted with love and acknowledgment of the original myths, Odysseus in the Serpent Maze is simply an enjoyable read for fans -young and old- of Greek mythology.
