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.