Giveaway: Aphrodite: Goddess of Love by George O'Connor

If you've ever read this blog, you know that I love George O'Connor's take on the Greek myths. (I also love him for turning me onto one of my favorite books, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony.) When his new releases come out, I imagine I'm just like one of those people who wait in line for the newest release of World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto.

I missed the actual date that Aphrodite dropped, but this Saturday I bravely trekked into the freezing- and I mean freezing- weather to pick up my copy at Barnes and Noble...only they didn't have it. I called Newbury Comics; they didn't have it. When I got home I checked the Brookline Booksmith site- they didn't have it either. Argh! In desperation, I placed an order from Amazon.

So imagine my consternation when I discovered yesterday that Brookline Booksmith did indeed have it. I am loathe to part with any more cash than I need to, but as I held the copy in my hands, I thought there could be worse things than having two copies of George's work. And then it hit me: I was going to give one away!

Below you'll find your standard Rafflecopter giveaway. I'm asking for three things: 1) sign up for my newsletter (you know you wanted to anyway), 2) Like George's Facebook page and 3) Follow him on Twitter. That's it. If you want to tweet about or otherwise share it, awesome, but I'm not going to make you.

In case it wasn't already clear, this is entirely my idea- George had nothing to do with it. In fact, I imagine he's sitting in his Brooklyn apartment, cringing in embarrassment over the whole thing. But that's what fans are for ;-)

I'm running this until Friday, January 10th, midnight, and as soon as I can on Friday I'll announce the lucky winner.

What are you waiting for? Enter now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Aphrodite: Goddess of Love (Olympians) by George O'Connor

Great art? Naturally. Humorous but insightful character development? Of course. But that's not what makes George O'Connor my favorite go-to for mythology. Here as in other volumes, he is able to cut to the heart of the conflicting myths and find the essence that unifies them; in doing so, he makes the origin of an enigmatic figure clear.

Is Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus or born of the essence of the castrated Uranus? (And boy, if you didn't get that he was castrated before, the graphics are going to make that very clear.) And how is it that Eros was born from both Chaos *and* Aphrodite? Sit back and smile as George explains it all.
Aphrodite in classical myth is easily the least sympathetic of all the Olympians as she and her mischievous son/male counterpart Eros ruthlessly inspire unrequited love and destroy marriages. In a heated exchange with Hera, Aphrodite succinctly sums up why she's probably the deity we want to side with after all. Three decades of closely reading mythology, and I had to smile as I finally saw an essential cultural tension played out not by Apollo and Dionysus but Hera and Aphrodite. Read their brief exchange, then go back and re-read the rest of the graphic novel; suddenly Aphrodite is much more sympathetic.

This is not the most romantic of the series- that honor goes to Hades- but we do get to see more of the continuing love affair that has been playing out since the first volume. Zeus, the most sensitive to Eros, at the end of the day has one true love: his power. However alluring Aphrodite- or Thetis- may be, he will do nothing to compromise his beloved. When you see Zeus act as wedding planner, you've got to know that something else is up.

An exciting midway point for a fantastic series. Highly recommended for fans of Greek mythology.

Poseidon: Earth Shaker by George O'Connor

I had this as soon as my copy came in to my favorite indie bookstore.  Sadly, I wasn't the first one in the house to read it; I lost the game of Keep Away I had to play with my sons once it came home.

It is a testament to George O'Connor's talent that I was moved at all by his rendering of the story of Poseidon, god of the seas, as much as I was.  Poseidon has always come off as haughty, moody and vengeful.  I don't think I'm the only one that has found even Hades more sympathetic.

O'Connor's Poseidon remains moody and vengeful, but here he also gets the benefit, as it were, of tragedy.  Poseidon senses that he's been cheated and (naturally) suspects Zeus.  But it isn't until the end of the book that Poseidon understands what he really lost.  A sibling is involved, but not the one he was worried about.

Poseidon, as he broods, turns to his admittedly "monstrous" offspring, particularly the cylops Polyphemos and Theseus. Through Polyphemos we get our first glimpse at the Trojan War and some of Odysseus' story. While I don't condone cylopes eating people, it's hard not to shake your head at Odysseus just a little bit.

The story of Theseus is even more complicated, starting with his birth.  Who was his father- Aegeus of Athens or Poseidon the Olympian?  O'Connor doesn't come right out and say it, but Theseus' ruthlessness- and the way his actions serve Poseidon's ends- should speak for themselves.  Any extra sympathy you may have for Poseidon can easily be debited from Theseus- O'Connor doesn't pull any punches with that, ahem, hero.

But Poseidon is more than just his progeny.  He spends much of his time brooding over his thwarted ambitions.  Being god of 7/8ths of the earth isn't enough- what's an Olympian got to do in order to get a city?    The book ends as Poseidon tries to assuage his wounded pride- then comes full circle to realize what he's really haunted by.

O'Connor the storyteller knows just how much to say for maximum effect, both to carry the story and give insight into the characters.  It doesn't take him long to convey Odysseus' (and Athena's) arrogance, Theseus' ruthlessness or Ariadne's emotional conflict.  O'Connor the illustrator is as vivid as ever but in this volume unusually jolting (not to give anything way, but the Polyphemos story is never gently rendered).  His action sequences give a sense of the quick and desperate nature of the life and death combat he describes.  The overall effect speaks to the brutal nature of the classical myths about Poseidon, the most unpredictable of all of the Olympians.

Do I need to tell you that if you're a Greek mythology fan you need to buy this now?

Review for Hades: Lord of the Dead by George O'Connor

There are a couple of myths I can't stop thinking about, and one of them is the myth of Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter and wife of Hades, lord of the realm of the dead.  She is everything from a symbol of the transition from childhood to adulthood to an explanation for why the seasons change (well, at least in temperate climates).  In more obscure (older?) stories, she also plays an important role in the story of Dionysus, which makes sense in light of the cycle of life/death/rebirth that both divinities embody... but that might be another story for another day.

Every version of the story that I have ever read features a young girl who is completely without agency.  For the most part, Demeter doesn't have any either.  She reacts in rage, but ultimately she must comply with the will of her brothers Zeus and Hades (and in some versions even Poseidon).  This myth embodies the tension between men and women in the ancient civilization and to some extent also our own.

If anyone else has ever been bothered by that, you're going to love George O'Connor's version.

Persephone is kidnapped by Hades, Demeter grieves and the earth turns barren, Helios tells her about the collusion between Zeus and Hades, Persephone comes back but only for half of the year.  Yada yada yada- every major plot point you remember is there.  It's what O'Connor fills around them that makes this delicious.

Ask yourself: how many young girls want to be so tightly held by their mothers?  What kind of a goddess is willing to destroy mankind in vengeance for the loss of her daughter?  And if someone were offered a throne, how many people would willingly say no?  Sunlight is warmer than the underworld, but sometimes warmth is stifling.

It's not all Hades and Persephone's love affair.  As O'Connor hinted a few months ago, we also get to see why Tantalus is related to the word "tantalize".  Importantly, O'Connor isn't just throwing that in here because we're talking about Hades and Tartarus.  In most versions of the myth, Demeter's behavior is, um, anti-social because she's distracted by her search for her daughter.  I loved the way O'Connor followed the strings of those two stories about starvation, human sacrifice and cannibalism.  In this version, Tantalus is an indirect contributor to the resolution of the story, and it makes sense.

At the risk of being presumptuous, I'm going to disagree with O'Connor's characterization of Hades as "emo".  For me, that conjures up images of a darkly dressed Hamlet moping through his palace, unsure of what to do next.  Hades is darkly dressed, and we could argue he mopes.  But Hades, too, has agency, and here it is as meaningful as Persephone's.  And what good is a myth if it doesn't provide us with meaning?

Highly recommended.