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A Memory of Wind
The heroes are eager to sail to Troy for war, but the wind is still. To fill their sails and set out, they must sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia—and how does a human girl become the wind? The starkness and psychological insight of Rachel Swirsky's Tor.com story earned it a place among the finalists for the 2010 Nebula Award.
Rachel Swirsky's short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Subterranean Magazine, among others, and has been collected in Year's Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, and the VanderMeers. She is also the submissions editor of Podcastle, an audio fantasy magazine.
Rachel Swirsky's short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Subterranean Magazine, among others, and has been collected in Year's Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, and the VanderMeers. She is also the submissions editor of Podcastle, an audio fantasy magazine.
41 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 3, 2009
26 people are currently reading
839 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Swirsky
134 books196 followersRachel Swirsky holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and is a graduate of Clarion West. Her work has been short-listed for the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Sturgeon Award, and placed second in 2010's Million Writers Award. In addition to numerous publications in magazines and anthologies, Swirsky is the author of three short stories published as e-books, "Eros, Philia, Agape," "The Memory of Wind," and "The Monster's Million Faces." Her fiction and poetry has been collected in THROUGH THE DROWSY DARK (Aqueduct Press, 2010). A second collection, HOW THE WORLD BECAME QUIET: MYTHS OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE, is forthcoming from Subterranean Press.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
June 6, 2011
NEWSFLASH...Rachel Swirsky can scribe it like an opera and make your heart go ouch! I picked up this free download on www.tor.com after seeing a good review by one of my fellow goodreaders (thanks J.M.) and am one very happy (and weepy) camper because I did. Set right before the Trojan War, this short story is told in the first person and tells the story of the daughter of Agamemnon who is fated to be sacrificed to the goddess Artemis so that the goddess will provide the wind necessary for the battle fleet to sail for Troy.
The writing is superb and deeply evocative without being melodramatic or overly sentimental. The sad, but straight forward tone makes the story all the more chilling in my opinion. Also, the idea of narrating the story from the perspective of the doom-fated daughter was inspired and gave the story a very unique feel. If you want a smart, beautiful story that will yank on the old heart strings, look no further. Highly Recommended!!
The writing is superb and deeply evocative without being melodramatic or overly sentimental. The sad, but straight forward tone makes the story all the more chilling in my opinion. Also, the idea of narrating the story from the perspective of the doom-fated daughter was inspired and gave the story a very unique feel. If you want a smart, beautiful story that will yank on the old heart strings, look no further. Highly Recommended!!
May 15, 2015
I began turning into wind the moment that you promised me to Artemis.
Before I woke, I lost the flavor of rancid oil and the shade of green that flushes new leaves. They slipped from me, and became gentle breezes that would later weave themselves into the strength of my gale.
How easy it is to be a thing but not feel it. Greatness slips into the mundanity of weaving, of pitting olives, of sitting cooped up in the megaron during storms and listening to the patter of rain on stone.
Their swords emerged from the obscuring whiteness as they swung, metal clanging against metal as blades found each other. The soldiers seemed a ghostly rank of dismembered limbs and armor that appeared with the glint of moonbeams and then vanished into nothing.
The soldiers who had grown bored with sitting rubbed wax into their armor with strokes as forceful as blows. Metal shone, bright as children’s eyes and new-minted coins. As I stared at the men and their armor, the sun blazed off of the metal until it became impossible to tell warriors from breastplates, skin from gold.
As for me, I felt airy, as if I were standing on the top of the limestone cliffs that surround Aulis harbor like the broken half of a bowl. Betrayal forced all our hearts to skip a beat, but mother and Orestes could still cry.
Parts of me were already gone. I knew there was no turning back.
They led me into Artemis’s sacred space. Wild things clustered, lush and pungent, around the courtyard. The leaves tossed as I passed them, shuddering in my wind. Sunlight glinted off of the armor of a dozen men who were gathered to see the beginning of their war. Iamas was there, too, weeping as he watched.
A wonderful haunting story from Iphigenia's point of view and the events leading up to her part in sending the army to Troy.
Miss Swirsky does a brilliant job of bringing this to life and making it a breath of fresh air. Iphigenia feels more complete, with a beginning and a middle of sorts for her story. It was bittersweet in a way, seeing inside her mind... even knowing what happens, I was hoping she'd get a reprieve.
Highly recommended :)
Read this beautiful story here
Before I woke, I lost the flavor of rancid oil and the shade of green that flushes new leaves. They slipped from me, and became gentle breezes that would later weave themselves into the strength of my gale.
How easy it is to be a thing but not feel it. Greatness slips into the mundanity of weaving, of pitting olives, of sitting cooped up in the megaron during storms and listening to the patter of rain on stone.
Their swords emerged from the obscuring whiteness as they swung, metal clanging against metal as blades found each other. The soldiers seemed a ghostly rank of dismembered limbs and armor that appeared with the glint of moonbeams and then vanished into nothing.
The soldiers who had grown bored with sitting rubbed wax into their armor with strokes as forceful as blows. Metal shone, bright as children’s eyes and new-minted coins. As I stared at the men and their armor, the sun blazed off of the metal until it became impossible to tell warriors from breastplates, skin from gold.
As for me, I felt airy, as if I were standing on the top of the limestone cliffs that surround Aulis harbor like the broken half of a bowl. Betrayal forced all our hearts to skip a beat, but mother and Orestes could still cry.
Parts of me were already gone. I knew there was no turning back.
They led me into Artemis’s sacred space. Wild things clustered, lush and pungent, around the courtyard. The leaves tossed as I passed them, shuddering in my wind. Sunlight glinted off of the armor of a dozen men who were gathered to see the beginning of their war. Iamas was there, too, weeping as he watched.
A wonderful haunting story from Iphigenia's point of view and the events leading up to her part in sending the army to Troy.
Miss Swirsky does a brilliant job of bringing this to life and making it a breath of fresh air. Iphigenia feels more complete, with a beginning and a middle of sorts for her story. It was bittersweet in a way, seeing inside her mind... even knowing what happens, I was hoping she'd get a reprieve.
Highly recommended :)
Read this beautiful story here
May 25, 2012
A MEMORY OF WIND
Rating: 2* of five
The story of Iphigenia, sacrificed by her father to Aphrodite, so the fleet carrying the Greeks could leave port. She has a very modern sensibility, does this Iphigenia, demanding the right to be happy and marry someone she loves.
This is codswallop. I doubt anyone goes to their death happily, but demanding things no woman of the time was likely even to conceptualize because it wasn't part of the universe they knew? Hm.
Oh, and Achilles is straight.
THE MONSTER'S MILLION FACES
Rating: 3* of five
In a future time, perdaughterkind is able to heal your emotional wounds by making new memories that, like all memories, are not "real" (an unhelpful construct when it comes to memory anyway) but feel real to the healed. This is done to begin healing from traumas inflicted in the course of being alive. Then, as one would expect, it's down to therapy to integrate the new memories into the patient's worldview and begin to make life work better for them.
Of course, the abuser is a man. The victim is, too. It's clear but never stated that the abuse was sexual. Frankly, I'm sick of this.
EROS, PHILIA, AGAPE
Rating: 2* of five
Adriana's father messed with her, and so she's all messed up, and she's rich so she buys herself a sex-slave robot and has the manufacturers make him look like her father.
Yuck.
Rating: 2* of five
The story of Iphigenia, sacrificed by her father to Aphrodite, so the fleet carrying the Greeks could leave port. She has a very modern sensibility, does this Iphigenia, demanding the right to be happy and marry someone she loves.
This is codswallop. I doubt anyone goes to their death happily, but demanding things no woman of the time was likely even to conceptualize because it wasn't part of the universe they knew? Hm.
Oh, and Achilles is straight.
THE MONSTER'S MILLION FACES
Rating: 3* of five
In a future time, perdaughterkind is able to heal your emotional wounds by making new memories that, like all memories, are not "real" (an unhelpful construct when it comes to memory anyway) but feel real to the healed. This is done to begin healing from traumas inflicted in the course of being alive. Then, as one would expect, it's down to therapy to integrate the new memories into the patient's worldview and begin to make life work better for them.
Of course, the abuser is a man. The victim is, too. It's clear but never stated that the abuse was sexual. Frankly, I'm sick of this.
EROS, PHILIA, AGAPE
Rating: 2* of five
Adriana's father messed with her, and so she's all messed up, and she's rich so she buys herself a sex-slave robot and has the manufacturers make him look like her father.
Yuck.
October 12, 2010
Beautifully written rendering of the story of Agamenon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia so that his ships could sail to Troy. It is haunting and heartbreaking and powerful, and true to the original myth. It's available for free on Tor's website, or as a free ebook download; I highly recommend it.
April 7, 2017
Having only the most basic storyline of Helen of Troy, I was a tad shocked and greatly sadden by this story of a girl sacrificed for the whims of a father.
June 17, 2010
I read this because it was grouped with the Hugo nominees and was free on iBooks for the iPad. It was an okay story about Iphigenia being transformed into wind.
July 5, 2011
Original review posted at Layers of Thought.
This is the sad tale of Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agamemnon. She is sacrificed by her father to the Goddess Artemis in order to create wind so that they (the Greeks) might sail to Troy - all to avenge the “kidnap” of the unhappily married Helen of Troy (or rather her elopement with Paris - the prince of Troy).
What is so special about “A Memory of Wind” is that unlike other stories around this particular Myth, in this telling Iphigenia is not marginalized. Her death is not taken as an insignificant part of the bigger picture as in the traditional tale. Told in the first person by Iphigenia herself, we see the horror of a teenage girl who thinks she is to be married to the warrior Achilles yet instead is sacrificed. As Rachel Swirsky aptly states in the Nebula Awards Showcase in the preface to the story:
Heartbreakingly, after her death our narrator attempts to understand her fate as we hear her speaking to her father - questioning his reasoning for this horrific decision. It is a lovely tale, done well with a light poetic style and an effective ending. 4 stars for this feminist take on a piece of an ancient myth.
This short Nebula nominated story/novelette is available in ebook format and is also included in the paperback edition Nebula Awards Showcase 2011. The ebook includes the above gorgeous cover, and is available at the Macmillan web site for ninety nine cents. http://us.macmillan.com/amemoryofwind; and on Amazon Kindle for US.
This is the sad tale of Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agamemnon. She is sacrificed by her father to the Goddess Artemis in order to create wind so that they (the Greeks) might sail to Troy - all to avenge the “kidnap” of the unhappily married Helen of Troy (or rather her elopement with Paris - the prince of Troy).
What is so special about “A Memory of Wind” is that unlike other stories around this particular Myth, in this telling Iphigenia is not marginalized. Her death is not taken as an insignificant part of the bigger picture as in the traditional tale. Told in the first person by Iphigenia herself, we see the horror of a teenage girl who thinks she is to be married to the warrior Achilles yet instead is sacrificed. As Rachel Swirsky aptly states in the Nebula Awards Showcase in the preface to the story:
From a certain perspective, Iphigenia is an unsuitable main character. She has minimal agency. She is young and trapped and sad and passive and dying…. But sometimes we are are the ones who are trapped. Sometimes we are the ones who can’t change our fate. Those stories are also important.
Heartbreakingly, after her death our narrator attempts to understand her fate as we hear her speaking to her father - questioning his reasoning for this horrific decision. It is a lovely tale, done well with a light poetic style and an effective ending. 4 stars for this feminist take on a piece of an ancient myth.
This short Nebula nominated story/novelette is available in ebook format and is also included in the paperback edition Nebula Awards Showcase 2011. The ebook includes the above gorgeous cover, and is available at the Macmillan web site for ninety nine cents. http://us.macmillan.com/amemoryofwind; and on Amazon Kindle for US.
June 11, 2011
When I saw a review of this book, and found out I could download it free from Tor.com (here), I was intrigued. I love stories about Greek myth -- actually, retellings of any myth -- and especially those which bring back the lost voices of women of these stories. So I downloaded it right away. It's a short story, really, so it doesn't take very long to read, and it drew me in from the first paragraphs: the way she describes Iphigenia going toward the sacrifice, losing everything she had before, is amazing.
There was one moment at the beginning which put me off, and that was the description of Odysseus as really wanting war. If I remember rightly, in the Iliad, he actually pretends to be mad to avoid going to war, and is only pulled into it when they prove he's sane by the fact that he won't run over his son with the plow he's using.
I liked the view of Clytemnestra this offered -- the moment in the cart when Iphigenia looks at her mother's hands, knotted by arthritis. That's a really powerfully real image, to me.
The writing is poetic, evocative. I really liked it, and especially the very last paragraph, which works so well.
There was one moment at the beginning which put me off, and that was the description of Odysseus as really wanting war. If I remember rightly, in the Iliad, he actually pretends to be mad to avoid going to war, and is only pulled into it when they prove he's sane by the fact that he won't run over his son with the plow he's using.
I liked the view of Clytemnestra this offered -- the moment in the cart when Iphigenia looks at her mother's hands, knotted by arthritis. That's a really powerfully real image, to me.
The writing is poetic, evocative. I really liked it, and especially the very last paragraph, which works so well.
September 12, 2021
4/5
This was a beautiful story.
"There’s stasis and then there’s change, and then before you even know what the next stasis is, it’s gone, and all you can do is try to remember it."
I loved the way she wove the storytelling. Loved the way things slipped away from Iphigenia.
"How easy it is to be a thing but not feel it. Greatness slips into the mundanity of weaving, of pitting olives, of sitting cooped up in the megaron during storms and listening to the patter of rain on stone."
Lyrical and fully epic in its own right, haunting is definitely the right word to describe this.
This was a beautiful story.
"There’s stasis and then there’s change, and then before you even know what the next stasis is, it’s gone, and all you can do is try to remember it."
I loved the way she wove the storytelling. Loved the way things slipped away from Iphigenia.
"How easy it is to be a thing but not feel it. Greatness slips into the mundanity of weaving, of pitting olives, of sitting cooped up in the megaron during storms and listening to the patter of rain on stone."
Lyrical and fully epic in its own right, haunting is definitely the right word to describe this.
finished-short-stories
August 30, 2020the premise of iphegenia fragmenting into wind & the loss of memory that accompanied that was interesting and made for a great story structure tbh (“I am dissolving into pieces,” I told him. “I need you to remember me for me. Will you do that? Please?”) & i hadn't read anything from her perspective before so it was good on that front too, but ngl i don't feel it was a... super compelling read overall for me? wanted a little more Something...
August 10, 2010
Book Review: “A Memory of Wind” by Rachel Swirsky
Short Stories, they say they are a dead medium, but I find them fascinating. Some days I don’t want to sit down and start a new novel, especially since most of the books I like to read are trilogies at minimum.
This story is about a girl named Iphigenia, set in the time of the war of Troy. She becomes the wind, and this story gives us background into how she becomes the wind.
It was a nice story. It has a lot of dream-like qualities to it. Her memories jump from one to the other and weave together a beautiful background to her life and her relationship to the one who will sacrifice her. My only complaint was the jumping around made it a little hard to latch on to the storyline in the beginning. Knowing more about the Greek myths and recognizing the people mentioned might have helped me get into the story sooner.
I wish I would have known more about Greek myths to know where she fits in. It leaves me with a thirst to seek out more writings set in those times.
Did I mention it is free on the Kindle? Go get it now!
Short Stories, they say they are a dead medium, but I find them fascinating. Some days I don’t want to sit down and start a new novel, especially since most of the books I like to read are trilogies at minimum.
This story is about a girl named Iphigenia, set in the time of the war of Troy. She becomes the wind, and this story gives us background into how she becomes the wind.
It was a nice story. It has a lot of dream-like qualities to it. Her memories jump from one to the other and weave together a beautiful background to her life and her relationship to the one who will sacrifice her. My only complaint was the jumping around made it a little hard to latch on to the storyline in the beginning. Knowing more about the Greek myths and recognizing the people mentioned might have helped me get into the story sooner.
I wish I would have known more about Greek myths to know where she fits in. It leaves me with a thirst to seek out more writings set in those times.
Did I mention it is free on the Kindle? Go get it now!
May 15, 2015
An interesting (feminist?) take on the story of Iphigenia.
Yeah, there's some slut-shaming in the beginning, but Iphigenia gets over it and realizes that, hey, this is something she's taught by society. So I can't fault the story for it.
Aside from that, really well-written and a beautiful insight into a character who is way too often neglected in this myth.
The only thing I'm not fond of is the portrayal of Achilles, but that is 100% due to me not being over The Song of Achilles, because let's face it, this is probably just as accurate a portrayal of how Greek men (and Achilles himself) would act. Different interpretations and different PoVs, with variations to suit the purpose of the narrative, and all that.
Anyway, it's available for free on Tor's website, though the URL changed from what Goodreads has, so here is the new one. You should probably read it. It's worth it.
Yeah, there's some slut-shaming in the beginning, but Iphigenia gets over it and realizes that, hey, this is something she's taught by society. So I can't fault the story for it.
Aside from that, really well-written and a beautiful insight into a character who is way too often neglected in this myth.
The only thing I'm not fond of is the portrayal of Achilles, but that is 100% due to me not being over The Song of Achilles, because let's face it, this is probably just as accurate a portrayal of how Greek men (and Achilles himself) would act. Different interpretations and different PoVs, with variations to suit the purpose of the narrative, and all that.
Anyway, it's available for free on Tor's website, though the URL changed from what Goodreads has, so here is the new one. You should probably read it. It's worth it.
February 12, 2012
A beautifully tragic short story that tells the tale of Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon as she's about to be sacrificed to Artemis to raise a wind to sail the fleet to Troy.
This is my first exposure to Swirsky and the quality of writing definitely means I'll be looking for other things she's written. I highly recommend this to everybody.
This is my first exposure to Swirsky and the quality of writing definitely means I'll be looking for other things she's written. I highly recommend this to everybody.
December 29, 2010
Visceral, heart-rending, and excellent. This 30-page FREE download from Tor.com is well worth your time, especially if you love Greek mythology or are a fan of speculative fiction. Swirsky's writing is nigh perfect here.
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Five out of five stars. Highly recommended.
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Five out of five stars. Highly recommended.
September 5, 2011
My first audio book. I didn't think I would enjoy a book in audio but I was wrong. This was a fascinating and tragic story, and I liked the way it was narrated, almost matter-of-factly, yet with some emotion, subdued but present.
October 13, 2010
Beautiful, haunting tearjerker of a tale of Iphigenia's sacrifice by her father Agamemnon, told from her point of view. I always pictured that man as a dickweed.
August 31, 2020
Absolutely stunning.
July 8, 2023
A Memory of Wind is a totally worthless 30 page story about the child of one Greek God being sacrificed to please another Greek God.
September 3, 2010
This long short story started slow but sucked me in the further I waded in. It is a fictional account of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon (King of Mycenae, Trojan War) who is sacrificed to the Goddess Artemis by her own father.
The prose of Rachel Swirsky is actually quite pleasing and makes the duller, uneventful portions of the story more digestible. The story is written in first person view of Iphigenia speaking to her father as she becomes the wind. Like the wind, the story swirls around several pieces of debris from various memories she has before everything comes together. This can make the story a little hard to follow at times. The author also shunned chapters despite the length of the story, and used page break devices instead. This made some parts very choppy.
Overall i was pleased with the story, the wording, and the creativity. That being said, I also felt emotionally withdrawn from the characters, as this was a story where Iphigenia is speaking directly to her father, not the reader. Also, the author took the Stephen King approach to foreshadowing where not only can you not avoid seeing whats coming, but it is enlarged and painted on the side of a barn, making it impossible not to know. Believing that she really was getting married only to be met with the shock that she is actually being sacrificed would have been more intense and engaging. Instead, it was met with the same emotion as the narrator and sacrificee: meh. The only real emotion didn't come until she was walking to her death.
Either way, the subject, style, and prose was worthy enough to be nominated and be a finalist for the prestigious Nebula Award
The prose of Rachel Swirsky is actually quite pleasing and makes the duller, uneventful portions of the story more digestible. The story is written in first person view of Iphigenia speaking to her father as she becomes the wind. Like the wind, the story swirls around several pieces of debris from various memories she has before everything comes together. This can make the story a little hard to follow at times. The author also shunned chapters despite the length of the story, and used page break devices instead. This made some parts very choppy.
Overall i was pleased with the story, the wording, and the creativity. That being said, I also felt emotionally withdrawn from the characters, as this was a story where Iphigenia is speaking directly to her father, not the reader. Also, the author took the Stephen King approach to foreshadowing where not only can you not avoid seeing whats coming, but it is enlarged and painted on the side of a barn, making it impossible not to know. Believing that she really was getting married only to be met with the shock that she is actually being sacrificed would have been more intense and engaging. Instead, it was met with the same emotion as the narrator and sacrificee: meh. The only real emotion didn't come until she was walking to her death.
Either way, the subject, style, and prose was worthy enough to be nominated and be a finalist for the prestigious Nebula Award
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2012
I've been thinking of Helen of Troy and Cassandra all morning and then - completely by accident - stumbled upon this little story. Synchronicity be damned. In any case, A Memory of Wind is a poetic and haunting retelling of a famous myth from a perspective of a character of whom the original tells us little more than her name. Rachel Swirky's manages to breathe life into that name, make it memorable and even make us (readers) hope against hope for a different, happier ending.
I wonder if there is such a thing as casually stunning.
I wonder if there is such a thing as casually stunning.
December 4, 2019
A beautifully written story of Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agememnon and Queen Clytemnestra, in the version of her tale where she is sacrificed to Artemis. It explores the relationship between herself and her father in a poignant way. This story is about Iphigenia accepting the fate she has been dealt and her reflection of her memories of her father that conflict with the decision he has made about her life.
It's truly wonderful and I read this version on tor.com (click link for story).
It's truly wonderful and I read this version on tor.com (click link for story).
May 26, 2010
My first exposure to Swirsky (read it at Tor.com ), and all I can say is she can write. The story is a retelling of the sacrifice of Iphigenia during the Trojan War to bring wind to the fleet, and the basic plot follows the more tragic versions. I enjoy retellings of these myths, even the ones that are too tragic for my tastes. But the author's style bumps it up a notch for me. I won't hesitate to read any of her short stories I come across.
January 31, 2015
Heart wrenching. Beautiful.
Link here:http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=c...
Link here:http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=c...
May 5, 2017
Not a fan of this story at all, sorry.
November 16, 2019
I think it's stupid and slutshaming. Everyone is weak and powerless. Everything is ugly. Even Ifigeneia. :-(
July 16, 2022
To be completely clear here, this is Iphigenia story, so of course I'm obsessed. The trouble is, I'm obsessed with Iphigenia's story for... at least six years? Which means, I have some ideas of my own how some things went down, what people thought what and... Swirsky has some other ideas incompatible with that.
This story is clearly mainly based on Euripid's Iphigenia at Aulis which - if you know Euripid's writing - goes somewhat differently than in other versions. (This is kind of problematic as there is no mention of Iphigenia in The Iliad.) There is nothing wrong with that of course, I love Euripid's version and it was my first introduction to the myth, but there come some... conceptions with that. Achilles is straight, for example. We also have the version that Clytemnestra was previously married which I personally thing is a bit cheap way to take. Odysseus behavior doesn't really make sense if you look at the wider picture. Also, where disappeared the other siblings?
I also thought that it was needlessly long, there just wasn't enough thought to support some of the passages and it felt a bit repetitive - which partly was clearly the author's intent, but it didn't really work for me.
There were things I loved of course, the idea of Iphigenia transforming into the wind is unusual and intriguing. I also loved the final look on Helen where Iphigenia changes her mind about her or maybe just considers another side of the story. (Otherwise, there is a massive Helen shaming going on which made me a bit uncomfortable.)
The whole tale is written in a way that makes every step physically painful and I was here for that. But there were also things that just... didn't sit right. The closure about Artemis just didn't make sense
I already written too much... this was a great short story, but I simply think I read better ones on this theme (https://archiveofourown.org/series/25...).
https://www.tor.com/2009/11/03/a-memo...
This story is clearly mainly based on Euripid's Iphigenia at Aulis which - if you know Euripid's writing - goes somewhat differently than in other versions. (This is kind of problematic as there is no mention of Iphigenia in The Iliad.) There is nothing wrong with that of course, I love Euripid's version and it was my first introduction to the myth, but there come some... conceptions with that. Achilles is straight, for example. We also have the version that Clytemnestra was previously married which I personally thing is a bit cheap way to take. Odysseus behavior doesn't really make sense if you look at the wider picture. Also, where disappeared the other siblings?
I also thought that it was needlessly long, there just wasn't enough thought to support some of the passages and it felt a bit repetitive - which partly was clearly the author's intent, but it didn't really work for me.
There were things I loved of course, the idea of Iphigenia transforming into the wind is unusual and intriguing. I also loved the final look on Helen where Iphigenia changes her mind about her or maybe just considers another side of the story. (Otherwise, there is a massive Helen shaming going on which made me a bit uncomfortable.)
The whole tale is written in a way that makes every step physically painful and I was here for that. But there were also things that just... didn't sit right. The closure about Artemis just didn't make sense
I already written too much... this was a great short story, but I simply think I read better ones on this theme (https://archiveofourown.org/series/25...).
https://www.tor.com/2009/11/03/a-memo...
January 10, 2023
A Memory of Wind by author Rachel Swirsky is a short story you can read for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2009/11/03/a-memo...
After Helen and her lover Paris fled to Troy, her husband King Menelaus called his allies to war. Under the leadership of King Agamemnon, the allies met in the harbor at Aulis. They prepared to sail for Troy, but they could not depart, for there was no wind.
Kings Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus consulted with Calchas, a priest of Artemis, who revealed that the angered goddess was balking their departure. The kings asked Calchas how they might convince Artemis to grant them a wind. He answered that she would only relent after King Agamemnon brought his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Aulis and sacrificed her to the goddess.
My ongoing quest get current with the Tor short stories. This one was haunting and beautiful. Please take the time to read it.
4 Stars
After Helen and her lover Paris fled to Troy, her husband King Menelaus called his allies to war. Under the leadership of King Agamemnon, the allies met in the harbor at Aulis. They prepared to sail for Troy, but they could not depart, for there was no wind.
Kings Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus consulted with Calchas, a priest of Artemis, who revealed that the angered goddess was balking their departure. The kings asked Calchas how they might convince Artemis to grant them a wind. He answered that she would only relent after King Agamemnon brought his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Aulis and sacrificed her to the goddess.
My ongoing quest get current with the Tor short stories. This one was haunting and beautiful. Please take the time to read it.
4 Stars
February 26, 2025
"A Memory of Wind" es una historia de ficción histórica ambientada en la antigua Grecia, durante la Guerra de Troya. Narra la historia de Iphigenia, la hija del rey Agamenón, que es sacrificada para apaciguar a los dioses y permitir que los griegos zarpen hacia Troya.
Los personajes están bien desarrollados. Iphigenia es una protagonista fuerte y compleja, y los personajes secundarios también están bien definidos y tienen sus propias motivaciones.
La escritura de Swirsky es hermosa y evocadora. Captura la atmósfera de la antigua Grecia y crea imágenes vívidas en la mente del lector.
"A Memory of Wind" es una novela emocionante y bien escrita que ofrece una nueva perspectiva sobre la Guerra de Troya. Recomiendo este libro a los amantes de la ficción histórica y la mitología griega.!
Los personajes están bien desarrollados. Iphigenia es una protagonista fuerte y compleja, y los personajes secundarios también están bien definidos y tienen sus propias motivaciones.
La escritura de Swirsky es hermosa y evocadora. Captura la atmósfera de la antigua Grecia y crea imágenes vívidas en la mente del lector.
"A Memory of Wind" es una novela emocionante y bien escrita que ofrece una nueva perspectiva sobre la Guerra de Troya. Recomiendo este libro a los amantes de la ficción histórica y la mitología griega.!
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