The Firebrand is a 1987 historical fantasy novel by American author Marion Zimmer Bradley. Set in the ancient city of Troy, the novel is a retelling of Homer's epic poem the Iliad. The Firebrand is written from the point of view of Kassandra, the prophet daughter of King Priam of Troy, and also features other prominent characters from Greek mythology. As in the Iliad, Kassandra foresees catastrophe for her city, but few pay heed to her warnings. In Bradley's story, Kassandra is presented as a strong and insightful woman rather than as a sufferer of insanity.
The novel has been described as belonging to the genres of revisionist history and feminist literature and employs themes of gender, religion, and power. Bradley wrote it after the success of her 1983 novel The Mists of Avalon, a retelling of the Arthurian legend from a female perspective. To appeal to a wider readership, The Firebrand includes fewer elements of fantasy than Bradley's previous works. It is her only novel set in ancient Greece. Her husband Walter H. Breen helped her research the story.
Simon & Schuster released The Firebrand on October 1, 1987, in hardcover, and it was issued in paperback in September 1988. The Firebrand has been overshadowed by the popularity of The Mists of Avalon, receiving less attention and critical praise. Reviews of the book ranged from mixed to positive, with many literary critics praising Bradley's ability to give new characterizations to legendary figures. It has been translated into at least twelve languages, beginning with Portuguese and French in 1989.
Main characters Princess Kassandra of Troy is the story's protagonist,Sharp, p. 249. and it is told from her perspective.Thompson, p. 192. It begins when an elderly Kassandra tiredly agrees to correct the Homeric version of the Trojan War that is told by a traveling minstrel.Bradley, pp. 1–4.Dorschel, p. 155. Kassandra recounts her life experiences at Troy and Colchis,Thompson, p. 191. how she came to balk at the gender roles dictated by Trojan culture, and her inner turmoil over whether she should be serving the Goddess or Apollo.Bray, pp. 106–07.
In her early years, Kassandra is known among her family as the "clever girl", while her older sister Polyxena is the "proper, modest", and "pretty one".Bradley, pp. 53, 141. Her parents intend for Kassandra to be brought up as a lady and to eventually marry a noblemanto her gradual displeasure.Thompson, pp. 192–93. She often comes into conflict with her father, King Priam,Bradley, pp. 38–39, 195, 248. who is characterized as cruel, violent, and power-hungry.Dorschel, p. 177. Queen Hecuba and Kassandra are not close; the queen often disparages her daughter for her prophecies.Bradley, pp. 29, 153, 167. Though Hecuba grew up as an Amazon,Bradley, p. 13. she gradually adopted patriarchal Trojan customs as her own.Thompson, p. 193.Dorschel, pp. 167–68.
The warrior Hector is close to their sister Polyxena,Bradley, p. 464. and is described by Kassandra as a bully.Bradley, p. 112. He disapproves of Kassandra's desire to be a warrior,Bradley, pp. 156–58. but he is much loved in the city.Bradley, p. 481. As an adult, Kassandra reflects, "of all [Priam and Hecuba's children], Hector was closest to their hearts, and [she] the least loved. Was it only that she had always been so different from the others?"Bradley, p. 470. Kassandra is happiest when she travels with the Amazons, whose chief Penthesilea becomes a mother figure for Kassandra.Bradley, pp. 82, 150.
Hector's wife, Andromache, is the elder daughter of Queen Imandra; despite Colchis' matriarchal culture Andromache is content to adopt Trojan culture and be subservient to her husband. She and Kassandra become close,Bradley, pp. 117–19, 187. as does Kassandra with Helen, despite her initial distaste for the problems Helen brings to Troy.Bradley, pp. 228, 249–50, 272, 299. Despite being her twin, Paris dislikes Kassandra.Bradley, pp. 146, 193. Early in the story, Bradley writes that Paris' main character flaw is "a total lack of interest in anything that did not relate to himself or contribute in some way to his own comfort and satisfaction."Bradley, p. 59.
Synopsis
Volume One
In the wealthy and powerful city of Troy, the pregnant queen Hecuba experiences a prophetic dream which distresses her. When consulted, a priestess of the Great Goddess tells Hecuba and her husband, King Priam, that the dream indicates she will birth a son who will bring destruction to Troy. Priam declares that this boy must be exposed to death, but upon his birth three days later, Priam agrees to Hecuba's pleas and has him fostered by a shepherd on the slopes of Mount Ida. Priam names the boy Alexandros (later Paris), and names his twin sister Alexandra, whom Hecuba keeps and decides to call Kassandra.
While visiting the temple of Apollo with her mother, six-year-old Kassandra experiences a vision of the god telling her she is to become "his priestess". In the following years, Kassandra experiences further visions. When she is twelve, Kassandra sees a vision of Paris, who is now a shepherd. Kassandra asks her father the boy's identity but he reacts angrily. Kassandra is sent to be fostered by Hecuba's sister Penthesilea, chief of the Amazonsa nomadic warrior tribe consisting only of women. There, Kassandra comes to love their lifestylethough it is not without its trialsand she learns of her twin, continuing to experience visions of him. Kassandra sees the Judgement of Paris, in which her brother deems Aphrodite more beautiful than Athena or Hera; Aphrodite rewards Paris by eventually promising the love of Helen of Spartadaughter of Leda and Zeus.
In Colchis, ruled over by Queen Imandra, Kassandra undergoes the rites of a priestess and is told that serving the Goddess is her destiny. At the age of fifteen, Kassandra is unhappily returned to her home. She arrives during a festival in time to see Paris win and be revealed to his true parents as their son. Despite the prophecy, Priam and Hecuba happily welcome him home. However, Hector and his other brothers, jealous of the attention and achievements Paris has suddenly garnered, suggest that he be sent abroad to treaty with King Agamemnonwho holds Priam's sister. Paris readily agrees. Meanwhile, Kassandra begins training as a priestess of the temple of Apollo, despite misgivings that she is abandoning the Goddess. Part of her duties include helping care for the temple serpentssymbols of Python whom Apollo is said to have slain. Paris returns to Troy with the beautiful Helen, wife of King Menelaus, and she is welcomed into the city. Kassandra's warnings that Helen will destroy Troy go unheeded, and Paris denounces his sister as a madwoman.
Volume Two At the temple, Kassandra is assaulted by Khryse, a priest who disguises himself as Apollo in order to seduce her. She sees through his trickery and fights him off, but the god feels insulted by her refusal and makes the city's residents stop believing her prophecies. Menelaus' brother Agamemnon uses Helen's flight as a pretext for war and soon begins launching daily raids on Troy, beginning the Trojan War. Kassandra spends more time with her family to help with daily tasks while the menled by Hectorfight off the Akhaian invaders. The war continues sporadically despite the attempts of former Trojan ally Odysseus to end the conflict.
Two years into the war, Kassandra returns to Colchis to learn more of serpent lore. Along the way, she encounters Penthesilea. Kassandra is unhappy to find that the nomadic ways of life of the Amazon and Kentaur are ending, and that Penthesilea's tribe is dwindling in number. Kassandra experiences a horrifying vision of Apollo firing arrows indiscriminately at both armiesa sign of his wrathwhich prompts her to return home. Accompanied with an adopted infant daughter named Honey whom she finds alongside the road, Kassandra returns to Troy and finds that the war is not going well for the Trojans.
Soon after her return, Apollo takes the form of Khryse and spreads a plague in the Akhaians' camp in response to Agamemnon's sacrilegious refusal to return Khryse's daughter, who has been Agamemnon's prisoner for three years. Khryse's daughter is reluctantly returned to her father and the Akhaian leader takes the young warrior Akhilles' concubine as reparation for his loss. The furious Akhilles refuses to continue fighting. Menelaus and Paris duel each other, but Paris flees the fight due to the intervention of Helen and Aphrodite.
Volume Three
Most of Kassandra's family has come to think of her as mad, and become angry when she feels compelled to vocalize prophecies that foretell the end of Troy. Despite Kassandra's warnings, the city experiences an earthquake sent by Poseidon, killing the three young sons of Helen and Paris. After Patroklus is killed by Hector, his closest friend Akhilles again joins the fight to get his revenge. Hector and his younger brother Troilus are killed, to the grief of everyone in Troy. Akhilles kills Penthesilea in battle, and soon after Kassandra fires a fatally poisoned arrow at his unprotected heel.
Poseidon sends another earthquake, knocking down Troy's defenses. The Akhaians flood into the city, and Kassandra and Honey are raped by the warrior Ajax. The women of Troy are divided up among the Akhaians, and Kassandra becomes Agamemnon's concubine. She is freed when his wife Klytemnestra murders him upon their return to Mykenae. Kassandra makes her way back to Asia Minor, where in the desert she hopes to recreate a kingdom of oldone ruled by a powerful queen.
Development
Marion Zimmer Bradley's previous novel The Mists of Avalon was a re-telling of the Arthurian legend from the point of view of Arthur's antagonist, Morgan le Fay.Paxson, pp. 11, 18. Bradley wrote The Firebrand after publishing The Mists of Avalon in 1983.Paxson, p. 117. According to The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, after The Mists of Avalon Bradley wrote stories with a strong literary appeal to appeal to a wide readership rather than focus on the fantasy genre. Bradley's later works often centered on strong lead characters in "mytho-historic settings" with few fantasy elements.Clute & Grant, p. 135. For instance, in The Firebrand the Kentaurs are depicted as a nomadic tribe of short, naked riders of horses rather than as the half-human, half-horsemen legends traditionally portray.Dorschel, p. 179.
The Firebrand is Bradley's second re-telling of a famous legend,Crosby, p. 54. and her only novel set in ancient Greece.Dorschel, p. 151. She decided to re-envision legends from a female perspective, and said that she had an interest to "hear more about the human realities" surrounding well-known stories, but did not believe this constituted a feminist writing style.Sharp, p. 243. In an interview with Lisa See of Publishers Weekly, Bradley said she viewed the Trojan War legend as an example of masculine culture dominating and obfuscating female viewpoints and contributions. She said:
Unlike The Mists of Avalon, which featured a wide range of Arthurian legends that Bradley drew upon as source material, Bradley cited few sources while writing The Firebrand. She credits her then-husband, author Walter H. Breen, with helping her research the book and create the story. Breen was knowledgeable about ancient Greek history and language; according to Bradley he persuaded her to use linguistically correct transliterations of the characters' names, such as Akhilles rather than the commonly known form Achilles.Bradley, Acknowledgments. Though Kassandra's fate remains unknown in the Iliad, Bradley found inspiration for the character's ending from an inscription at the Archaeological Museum in Athens, which mentioned Kassandra's descendants.Bradley, Postscript. Bradley believed that this inscription provided the historical basis for Kassandra's existence.Raddeker, n.p.
Themes and analysis
Gender roles