Tapestry of Bronze: Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus – Life of The Cursed in Love

We all know the tragic tale of Oedipus, it has been made in to plays in ancient times and in the present. Heck! Freud named a complex after him and in true character to the ancient greek stories this is a tale both of misery and happiness with a squick factor.

Summary:

Jocasta is to be the Queen of Thebes, wed to the King. When her betrothed dies and the new King Laius – newly returned from Pisa – is to be her husband her happiness is cut short. As Jocasta grows to be the true ruler of Thebes with her brother Creon at her her side the city flourishes. Then while travelling to Delphi King Laius is killed. Since a sole Queen on the throne is frowned upon a contest is to be held for the fortunate man to be the new King of Thebes with Jocasta as their bride. Amongst the contestants is the handsome young man Oedipus whom Jocasta falls in love with and he with her. Prophesies are proclaimed and the powers against Thebes seem to be more crueler and twisted than before.

This is a continuation from The Niobe Trilogy, but was written earlier from the timeline presented in this books first pages. It was originally names Iokasta in the greek way, but was changed for simplicities sake. And unlike The Niobe Trilogy the book isn’t written in third person, but first, for those who prefer one or the other.

The writing is brilliant as always. The plot we know already, but the characters are in the end whom we care about. Jocasta is truly an innocent in the beginning and learns and becomes a sole ruler of Thebes in all but name. Her craving for love is truly heartbreaking when knowing her story and her brother Creon, who is as ambitious as Pelops (sensing a theme here with protagonists with plotting brothers in this series), but more kind and caring – if not a little cold sometimes. There were moments when I suspected some incest between Jocasta and Creon with the way Creon treated her, but then again it is a large theme of the story so to add this to it might have been intentional or I am really looking too much in to it so take this observation with a grain of salt. Or read the book and tell me what you think.

Oedipus, poor man. He is an innocent in this and it’s just heartbreaking the way the story goes because he is truly so good and kind and smart and then – since The Fates must have their ways there is more sadness than disgust when it comes to what happens to him. It really feels like wrenching at the twisted heart strings in my chest when it all came to happen. Then again this is greek tragedy, what else was I to expect.

You can listen to this book since it has an Audiobook, you can read it on Kindle as well as buy the paperback. I highly recommend it, like do all of the Tapestry of Bronze series. If you like ancient greek, tragedies or are just curious then read it in any form you want because it’s worth the price.

Thank you for reading!