74 pages • 2 hours read
Rosemary SutcliffBlack Ships Before Troy
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Roles of Mortal Women and Female Goddesses
In Black Ships Before Troy, mortal women are often little more than objects to be stolen, traded, and enslaved. Few significant women characters play a role in the plot—even those that do are simply higher value prizes. Helen—ostensibly the woman who occasions the war—has no choice in her marriage to Menelaus, is forced by divine intervention to fall in love with Paris, is prevented from leaving Paris to return to her original husband, and finally must rely on Odysseus to save her from Menelaus’s wrath. Other prominent female characters, like Chryseis and Briseis, are pawns in the rivalry between Achilles and Agamemnon rather than people with minds, desires, and personalities of their own. The nameless women of Troy become slaves when the city falls.
However, immortal women and goddesses occupy an entirely different realm. Instead of being subject to the whims of the men around them, goddesses control the entire chessboard of the war. Eris triggers the events the cause the Trojan War, Aphrodite ensures the continued survival and happiness of her favorite Paris, Thetis is the only one capable of controlling and reining in Achilles, and 
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By Rosemary Sutcliff
