'The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children. But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story.
'Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir. Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.
'Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land. To save her sons and reclaim their birth right, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force – a mother’s love – and fight. All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia.'
Myth and legend has long been used to inspire new works, and even a lot of those legends are reinterpretations of other stories that have existed in the world. There are certain stories and character archetypes that have survived over the centuries because they've appealed to people on a deeper level, and these tend to be the ones that get adapted over and over again. There are hundreds of versions of Hercules, Thor, and other legendary heroes. Lauren J.A. Bear seems to take a different approach with her writing, however, instead focusing in on the lesser known characters, those who play a smaller part in another's story, and focuses on them instead. She did that with her debut novel, Medusa's Sisters, and is doing that once again with the spectacular Mother of Rome.
Most people will likely be familiar with the characters of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers raised by a fierce wolf who would go on to found the city of Rome, creating one of the largest empires to ever exist. But that tends to be where the knowledge ends. Where did these two come from, and what led them to be raised by a wild animal? These are the questions that Bear is focusing on, giving the answers her now signature twist, transforming the story into something deeper and more surprising than ever before.
Rhea Silvia is the only daughter of King Numitor, a king troubled by much grief at the loss of his queen and their eldest son to illness years before. When his only other son is lost he falls into a pit of grief and despair; a despair that leaves to upheaval for the kingdom. Rhea is sent to join the order of the Vestal Virgins by her uncle, where she's expected to spend decades in service to the gods and celibacy. Unknown to anyone though, Rhea has been visited by the Roman god Mars, and the two of them have entered into a relationship. Before she takes her vows with the order she falls pregnant to the god, something that earns her a death sentence. With her sons lost out in the world and her dead, it's believed that that's where Rhea's story ends. However, at the moment of her death Rhea makes a deal with the goddess Cybele, and becomes the very wolf that will care for her sons and raise them to greatness.
One of the things that I have come to adore with Bear's writing is that women get put in the centre of things. It's not going to be surprising news to anyone that in a lot of these stories from the ancient world women don't get the best roles. Prizes to be won for men, victims to be brutalised, monsters to be vanquished. Women are obstacles or set-dressing to men's heroics. But Bear has twice now shone the light on the women of these myths, and has given them more agency, humanity, and wonder than any of these ancient storytellers have ever done.
Rhea is a character that goes through a lot of changes over the course of her narrative, and not just physically. She's a loving daughter who cares about her father and her role as a princess. She understands duty and knows that she will need to marry in order to strengthen the kingdom. Because of this, when we see her watching her father lose himself to drug and grief induced madness it's incredibly tragic, and seeing it through her eyes shows the very human impact of an event that's usually described in the broader terms, as something that befalls a kingdom. Rhea is used to humanise the people around her, and it's through her connections and love for them that this tale is made a little less fantastical and into something that most people will be able to connect with.
Bear also uses the Order of the Vestal Virgins in a similarly interesting way. Often this group is presented as something of a punishment, a life sentence where Rhea will be locked away without her own agency. And whilst the book doesn't try to paint it as something else, it does give it more depth than other tellings of the story. Rhea comes to respect the order and its members, she makes connections with them, and you can start to see it as less of a prison and more of a sisterhood; a sisterhood that will echo down through Rhea's story.
The most obviously impactful changes in her story are her motherhood, and her life after her death. As far as I'm aware most versions Rhea's story end with her death, and the folding of her narrative into the rest of the story, making her Lupa the she-wolf who cares for her sons, is something that is unique to Bear's telling. When I read the synopsis for the book and saw that change I thought that it made perfect sense to do that, and having now read the book I can't believe that this wasn't just the original myth. It works perfectly. It fits with the world of gods, magic, and the fantastical, but it also works on a thematic level; a mother whose love is so strong that she returns from death to care for her sons in a new form, of course that's what happened.
Much like with Medusa's Sisters, Mother of Rome will change the way that you look at this story, and will reframe what you know in such a way that it'll become the only version you have in your head. I've been unable to view Medusa as anything but a hugely tragic and mistreated figure since Bear's first book, and now I'm not going to be able to see the myth of Rhea or her sons again without this narrative being chiefly at the forefront of my mind. Bear is a master at reinterpreting these stories, at putting women at the centre of them, and making them feel varied, flawed, real, and strong beyond belief. If you're looking for a feminist take on these ancient tales this is the book for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment