The gods and goddesses of Greek mythology - among them Artemis, Demeter and Apollo - still live in the Western imagination. But many readers are less familiar with the loves and struggles of 6th century B.C. Greece and the kingdoms around it. Mary Matissian introduces readers to the very human inhabitants of that world.
Artemis, a young priestess of the Daughters of Demeter, survives a shipwreck only to come in to the hands of slave dealers - and to be reunited with her twin sister, Galatea. Together they are given refuge by the Queen of the Amazons. Galatea becomes the concubine of King Koba of Sakartvelo, who also introduces Artemis to the pleasures possible between men and women.
But Artemis chooses to return to the service of the Mother and the protection of the Mother's priestesses -until Koba sends his trusted emissary to ask Artemis to become his queen, after Galatea's death. Love develops in an unexpected way, as Galatea's and Artemis's children shape and are shaped by the turmoil created by warrior tribes and changing allegiances in the wild regions around the Black Sea. In the end, the world, characterized by worship of the Mother, gives way to women needing the protection of warlike and very human men.
Rich in research and scholarship, The Adventures of Artemis shines with the sights and sounds, the natural details and images, of a faraway time brought close through the life of one woman who experiences and contains the drama and the majesty of the era.
Bio: MARY KILBOURNE MATOSSIAN is a retired historian and the author of four books of nonfiction. She received her Ph.D. in history from Stanford University and taught full time at the University of Maryland. The Adventures of Artemis is her first novel.
