STAR INTERVIEW
HEROIC EFFORTS
Jennifer Saint has made her name with spellbinding novels retelling ancient Greek myths from a feminist perspective. She tells Tina Jackson about the joy of creating an action heroine in her latest, Atalanta.
Tina Jackson
Heroes, eh? Many of us are familiar with the hero of Jason and the Argonauts – the clue’s in the name. Just as male superheroes abound in contemporary popular culture, so too in classical Greek mythology. This is one of the reasons why Atalanta, Jennifer Saint’s new novel and third to rework a Greek myth from a feminist perspective, is so exciting. Narrated in Atalanta’s own voice, it brings to life a barely-known heroine from Greek mythology – the sole woman amongst the Argonauts and a person who could outrun, and outhunt, any challenger.
The fact that Atalanta is so little-known was what piqued Jennifer’s interest.
‘I’ve written about much better-known women but so few people knew Atalanta’s name,’ she says.’ Everyone knows Jason and the Argonauts. In one account Atalanta is given a spear and I was really fascinated by that, but there isn’t a definitive version. I like the idea that she is in some versions of the story, and the idea that I could come and write her back in.’
Atalanta began life after Jennifer had completed a first draft of her second novel, Elektra. ‘I had a six-week break and it coincided with NaNoRiMo so that November 2020 I decided I’d write a different short story every day, a mini myth cycle,’ she says. ‘I picked a different mythological woman and wrote her story. With Atalanta there’s this brilliant origin story – being exposed on the mountain and being adopted by bears, who are sacred to Artemis, a protector of girls – and it fitted together perfectly and I loved it and I thought it would be a perfect short story. But she wouldn’t go away.’
The origin story intrigued Jennifer with the possibilities of how it contributed to Atalanta’s unconventional life and heroic abilities. ‘Her starting point was that she’s been abandoned by her parents but that’s what gives her her power and opens up a much more adventurous life than the one she’d ever have led.’