If watching The Odyssey has left you wanting more journeys, scheming gods, and epic heroes, then these books are your perfect next read. From Penelope to Achilles, these mythological retellings will make you feel like you never left ancient Greece.

House of Odysseus by Claire North

Queen Penelope rules over the isle of Ithaca and has ever since her husband Odysseus sailed to war with Troy never to return. Any of the peace she created is broken when Orestes, king of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra return. Elektra has brought her brother back to Ithaca because the guilt of killing his mother is making him weak—a weakness that she doesn’t want the men of Mycenae to see. Penelope knows that destruction comes with Orestes. His uncle Menelaus the violent king of Sparta wants Orestes’ throne and won’t stop until he has it. Stuck between two kings gone mad, Penelope fights to protect her home. She allies with Elektra and Helena of Troy whilst being watched over by the goddess Aphrodite. All of these women have something hidden and the ability to change their world.

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The Wandering Queen by Claire Heywood

Elissa and Pygmalion are both awarded half of the kingdom when their father, King of Tyre dies. Elissa finds herself being tossed to the side by merchants that favor her younger more influenceable brother. Thrown from her palace home, Elissa journeys growing from a naive princess to a strong and confident leader. She leads her people in the search of a new homeland earning herself the name Dido, the wanderer. One day after fleeing the Trojan War, a stranger, Aeneas, arrives at the city gates. Dido and Aeneas grow increasingly closer to one another forcing Dido to make the ultimate choice deciding between power and love. 

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Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati

Clytemnestra endures years of suffering. She is born a Spartan princess, marries a tyrant, and is forced to watch her children sacrificed to the gods. In her world, women are treated as commodities. They are used, silenced, and discarded. Clytemnestra doesn’t fight or mourn. Instead she waits and plans. When the moment comes, she is able to rise as a force to be reckoned with. Clytemnestra is a story of a heroine taking her fate and her story back from the men who are trying to control the narrative. 

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Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Being born a daughter rather than a son meant that Princess Atalanta was left on a hillside to die. A mother bear takes Atalanta and raises her under the protection of the goddess Artemis. There is just one compromise for Atalanta’s safety: if she marries, there will be consequences. As Atalanta ages, Artemis offers her the opportunity to fight alongside warriors called the Argonauts. The Argonauts’ journey is full of challenges but Atalanta proves that she belongs with these soldiers. However, she becomes a part of a passionate affair which causes her to question what Artemis has said and question her intentions.

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Beyond the Bath of Stars by Schneider K. Rancy

In this modern retelling of the Odyssey, Eurick Ulysse faces poverty, dead end jobs, unachievable goals, and intense expectations from his immigrant parents. Feeling enough of the weight that comes from being poor in his South Florida neighborhood, he turns to drinking to self soothe. What began as drunken antics on the beach quickly changes when Eurick pulls the drowning Ana María Cortez out of the water. Carefree and wealthy, Ana invites Eurick and his friends into her world. They soon discover that world is a new side of Miami they have never seen, full of gambling, theft, and strange interactions. Eurick is rebelling against everything that ever could have held him back. He’s been trapped for so long that he is now desperate and determined to free himself.

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The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis

Beautiful Psyche has caught the eye of every possible suitor in her town but her defiant, stubborn attitude makes her an undesirable wife. When her father realized their family is in danger unless he appeases the enraged goddess Aphrodite, he ties Psyche to a rock to be ruined by a monstrous husband who never comes. Eros, the nonbinary deity of desire, can no longer fulfill her promise to their mother Aphrodite to kill Psyche after laying eyes upon her. Instead Eros hides Psyche in a palace, visiting under the cover of night where they experience love and passion, but Eros flees by dawn. Psyche begins to doubt and question as she grapples with secrecy and desire. In a restless lapse of judgment, she betrays Eros’ trust causing a slew of consequences that will test them and change the world.  

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Horses of Fire by A.D. Rhine 

With a name meaning “battler of men”, Andromache begins simply as the wife of Prince Hector, though she eventually lives up to her name. To outsmart the invading Greeks, Andromache gathers an army of misfits and outcasts becoming the commander in order to protect the life that she has built with Hector. Rhea is a refugee who has finally found her place as a horse whisperer in Hector’s stables. She must become a spy to save her new home whilst also facing a love that is forbidden and reveal where her loyalties lie. Blamed for starting the Trojan War, no one knows Helen’s real story. To escape her persecutor and sabotage plans to hurt Hector, Helen must endanger herself by exposing herself to the one that hates her most. 

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Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

Achilles ran from her home and her Myrmidon tribe to live as a woman with the transgender priestesses of Aphrodite called the kallai. Odysseus comes to bring Achilles to battle against the Hittites but Achilles would rather die as a woman than fight like a man. Divine mother Athena prevents this from happening by transforming Achilles’ physique into the womanly body she has always wanted and promising her everything including success in war and a child born of her body. Achilles reunites with her cousin Patroklos and his wife, the sorceress, Meryapi, and heads to war with a vengeance. 

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Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood

Every spring Ithaca sacrifices twelve of its maidens to Poseiden as punishment for the death of Queen Penelope’s twelve maidens centuries ago. Leto is one of the twelve chosen this spring but death is much different than she is expecting. She wakes up on a mysterious island to a powerful girl named Melantho. She says that one more death can save a thousand from that fate. The problem is the person that must die is the prince of Ithaca. 

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