Book Review - 'Goddess of The Hunt' by Shelby Eileen

For someone who goes by the name of Artemis, who favours and admires her above all Greek gods, and who likes to invoke her, I can't believe that I have never read anything specifically about Artemis until now. Maybe it's the curvy, POC Artemis with a crescent moon on her forehead on the cover of this tome that attracted me so fiercely.

'Goddess of The Hunt' is a series of poems by Shelby Eileen about Artemis; about what makes her so stunning and awesome. It is also about her as an aromantic asexual, and how that's fine. How that's perfectly normal. Her maidenhood is her choice, her freedom. Even though most of the verses express how lonely and depressed this can make her. The forest, the moon, and bows are the loves of Artemis's immortal life. She loves and trusts other people, or she wants to be able to, just not romantically. She's a goddess and hunter, who won't let anyone else define her. 

There are also a few poems from the points of view of Artemis's Titan mother, Leto, and Demeter, Persephone, Athena, Hera, and Hestia. All are about how they view and look up to Artemis in their own way. Artemis positively talks about her sister Aphrodite once. 

Not all of the poems in 'Goddess of The Hunt' make much sense, but that's part of the beauty and the challenge.

'Goddess of The Hunt' - An insightful little treat for all Artemis fans, and Greek goddess and feminist scholars.



Best quotes:



'She stomps her feet and the sky cracks, marble splits. Family knows the force of her anger. Forest is the only one who doesn't accuse her emotions of being a benevolent, everlasting child's tantrum'.

'I don't know how to write
or breathe or love
in any other way
than spilling my truths all over
and praying to the Gods that someone
anyone
will stay and help me clean up the mess'

'This century, they think, this century maybe she will take up settlement. Grow roots in consort, become mother while remaining maiden, bleed... and deliver the future.'

'in a lot of ways
they will push me out of history
because I am a fighter not a lover
all the recognition and tumult of love
fell right off me
the tales that seem the happiest
always have that journey, too
the one I can't make myself take'

'Defeat does not always have to be defeat. It can always, always, be a beginning.'

'I bet they didn't think I'd grow up to be
the way I am
sister of the sun God
daughter of the God of Gods
I am a Goddess with full lips and bared teeth
behind my smile there is poison berries
without warning I'll clamp down, break the skin
spit the juice in your eyes
watch you burn for thinking
I was ever yours to stare at
so hungrily'

'To think of her only as a soft-curved huntress, a moon-devoted maiden, is to not know her at all. Stories paint heroes in such pretty light. A rainbow of deceit and glamour and rewritten history. The narrative becomes so suffocating that only a blood soaked arrowhead can spell out what really matters.'

'I'm here at the height of what the mortals deem divine
I'm at the top of a structure I never wanted to belong in
the only thing keeping them from saying I had it all
is my missing love story
but a moon child like me
only ever grew to crave your strawberry-sweet lips
for a look, not a taste
don't ever think you're not worth it
just because I could never take you
the way you so long to be had'

'She wishes there were entirely different schools of thought prescribed to marriage, union. To connection. There must be, out there, ways to die for someone that do not mean altruistic, all-encompassing, romantic, sexual, love.'

'It is hard to embody woman and lady or even Goddess when my true form, I know now, is balance.'

'you must remember how strong you are
when you feel like an entire ocean is pressing down on
your chest
when you feel like a whole galaxy of emptiness is
swallowing up your voice
you must remember that I sincerely believe you have the
power
to change the world
you must remember that I would go to war for you
you must remember that flowers shift in soil just to face
your light
you must remember that every feeling, big or small, your
heart puts you through
I'll be there if you need to sob it all away
I'll be there if you forget you're as beautiful as a sunset
I'll help you remember
and take care of anyone
who makes you question your worth for a moment'

'I never wanted to be made of stone
I never wanted your hands molding my chest, eyes,
cheeks, hair, feet
in your eyes, I never was flesh
if I were warmer
you might see how
I could fall apart for you
a maelstrom of silver rain, a body weeping its life away
broken, but not without luster
make me ugly, and undesirable
make me all the things I was actually proud of being'

'The skin of her lips- taut, sunset pink, rumored sweet, dreamed cloud-like, capable of silencing, incapable of silence.'

'Gods waste so much blood
on what?
on nothing
one war is never enough
one sacrifice is never enough
and if you believe one villain can bring it all down
or one hero can put it all back together
then you have not been paying attention'

'She wipes and worries at the edges of her existence; stains that don't come out seep through material and lore to paint her skin with her shortcomings. It is useless, this struggle to remain clean. Clean is a lie. Better to be a tarnished warrior than a spotless false god.'

'I think whatever hurt or hollowness you feel when you see someone who is peaceful in their solitude is your own loneliness.' - Leto



Final Score: 3.5/5