In a very distant era, just before the Trojan War , the stories of one of the greatest heroes of all time are destined to become a legend. We are talking about Theseus , character at the center of the latest novel by Andrea Frediani : “The hero of Athens” (Newton Compton, 2022, pp. 384, also e-book).
In the book, with a fast and pressing rhythm as in all of Frediani's works, Theseus is a man who does not accept an ordinary destiny. Convinced of being the son of the god Poseidon and destined for great deeds, he grew up with the ambition to emulate Heracles, the legendary hero celebrated by all. For this reason he embarks on an existence full of pitfalls but able to lead him to glory anyway. First of all he sets out on a journey to Athens, where he intends to reclaim the throne that belongs to him by lineage. But the city is going through a deep crisis: it is decimated by civil wars , and prostrated by a king too weak to oppose Minos, the powerful ruler of Crete, who demands impossible tributes from the top of his seat in the magnificent palace of Knossos. It will be up to Theseus to free the city from the Cretan yoke or to die trying to do so.
The exploits of Theseus will lead him to face terrible monsters , to cross dangerous places , in contact with the centaurs, the Amazons and the same Heracles, to foil deceptions and betrayals and to love beautiful and ruthless women , who will facilitate or hinder his path.
A novel, therefore, in which adventures, twists and great characters are not lacking and which allows one of our greatest authors of historical novels to try his hand at mythology .
We then asked Andrea Frediani what prompted him to immerse himself in the world of Greek myths and heroes:
“Only after writing the novel did I realize that it was inevitable that I would get there. In fact, it took me too long. I also realized this because I found the story inspired by mythology in my DNA, to the point that, for the first time, I did not need to document myself before writing. It all came straight after the decision to write the novel. A decision that came from a request from my editor, mind you: he told me that now the public is very receptive to Greek mythology and he proposed to write about it. We just wasted time on the character to choose: Theseus immediately came to mind, I felt very close to me, he was not convinced because he considered him little known. In fact, I persuaded him by showing him that he is a hero at the center of all the main mythological sagas, and entangled in love and hate stories with the main tragic female figures of the myth: Medea, Antiope, Hippolyta, Ariadne, Phaedra and even Elena ... "
Who is Theseus in your novel?
“My Theseus is partly inspired by the reconstruction of the ancient author Plutarch in his Parallel Lives: Plutarch's Theseus is more historical than mythological, a sort of equivalent of Romulus, but for Athens. However, in my reconstruction I added the private dimension, which is that of a common human being, guided by his impulses, which are above all ambition, envy, selfishness. On the other hand, it is precisely the characteristics of the Homeric gods which the heroes of ancient Greece were inspired by, right? ”.
The title evokes Theseus as the hero of Athens ... who is a hero in your opinion?
“In theory, a hero would be a man who demonstrates courage and selflessness, who sacrifices himself for others. In practice, in the common sense he is one who carries out great deeds, no matter for what reasons, even if they were petty; on the contrary, the reasons are often set aside and even obscured by the size of the companies themselves. This is because the idea we have of the hero dates back to ancient Greece, to those characters who based their status on the pursuit of glory and fame, no matter at what price. Christopher Vogler explains this clearly in his famous essay "The Hero's Journey", in which he makes us understand how much every fiction plot of our time is, consciously or not, the fruit of the influence that myths have had on us.
By now as a writer he ranges from ancient history to the contemporary ... but which era do you feel most his in this moment?
“I have always liked the whole story. I studied the Roman one because my publisher asked me, but I graduated in Medieval History and in high school I graduated with a thesis on the Third Reich. But I would say that at the moment it is contemporary history that attracts me the most, especially that of the Second World War. This is also because the current situation is, lately, so disruptive as to offer many references to the causes and events that determined the Second World War. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed writing about ancient Greece in a semi-mythical form, and it is not excluded that I will come back shortly ... "
What other literary enterprise are you going to do?
“Just in line with those mentioned above, I am working on a novel, very broad and ambitious, ranging from 1928 to 1975, passing through fascism, World War II and the Cold War. I hope to be able to publish it in February ”.