A Thousand Ships

In her Afterword, Haynes describes her novel as an attempt to write an “epic” in which “heroism” does not belong solely to men and “tragic consequences of war” solely to women (345). Because Haynes writes her modern epic by retelling ancient Trojan war mythology for the purpose of recovering women’s voices, it is important to differentiate between her working definitions of “epic,” “tragedy,” and “hero” and those of ancient Greek speakers, whose texts provide the earliest sources for the myth narratives on which Haynes’s vignettes are based (345). The meanings of these terms continue evolving across antiquity and into the middle and modern ages.

Though Haynes never explicitly defines the term hero, her narrative, which she calls an epic, suggests that a hero is someone who performs brave deeds (e.g., great, terrible) in the face of tragic (i.e., disastrous) events. Her narrative portrays women from ancient Trojan war mythology exhibiting bravery in a variety of roles and circumstances. Penthesilea is a gifted warrior who chooses her manner of death. Penelope raises her son and maintains her household while her husband is away for twenty years. Oenone also raises her son with Paris alone.