Gate to the Sea

by Bryher

gate to the sea

Genres: Historical Fiction, Greece

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Bryher was the pen name of the novelist, poet, memoirist, and magazine editor Annie Winifred Ellerman.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple but heartfelt story. I read this novella in a matter of hours. 4th Century B.C.--the city of Poseidonia [the Roman Paestum] has been defeated by Lucania and her people enslaved. They are not even permitted to speak their native Greek. An old couple wishes to die together. With the aid of the priestess of Hera, Harmonia, and her brother, they are persuaded to escape that horribly cruel city, on the one day a year Hera worshippers are permitted outside the city to perform religious rites. Will they pass through "the gate to the sea" to freedom successfully?

Characters are sympathetic and we root for them against their masters. We see Bryher's trademark power of description. The photos of the ruins of Paestum are lovely.

[Ozymandias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel (novella?). It’s about an unusual and interesting topic: the life of a conquered city. Poseidonia is gone. The Lucanians have seized it and enslaved the inhabitants. Speaking Greek is forbidden and the entire culture will be lost within a generation. All who survive are slaves or refugees scattered throughout Magna Gracia. What little sense of community exists is based around the worship of Hera. Other than that it’s every man for himself, with any sign of rebellion or disloyalty instantly seized on by fellow slaves who hope that by reporting it they will escape punishment or even be rewarded. In short, it’s a living hell. But a believable one.

This was a common scene in antiquity and yet we rarely see the consequences of total defeat depicted in more than brief anecdotes. After all, the winners have far more to say. As far as I know, this is the only attempt to dramatize the experience. As you can imagine it makes for pretty grim reading. Two of our leads are an elderly couple whose goal is to get poison so they can die together before one of them is sold off. Another (our main lead really) is the high priestess of Hera who’s allowed to continue serving the goddess only as long as it pleases the Lucanians to permit it and who can feel the forces slowly aligning against her, knowing all the while that she can never win the inevitable fight.

But the story is not wholly without hope. You just have to set your goals low. The populace as a whole is doomed. Poseidonia will never rise from the ashes (or rather it will rise as Lucanian and Roman Paestum). The original population is already nothing more than a memory shared by some isolated slaves. But for an individual, flight may be possible. There are other Greek cities who would welcome refugees. Certain people can hope for some kinds of privilege if they abandon their Greek roots and assimilate into the Lucanian population. They will never be citizens but they might not remain slaves.

I think of this book a bit like a mood poem. Every scene establishes or reinforces some element of how life felt as a slave in your own home town. The plot is pretty simple and nothing all that unexpected, but its the sense of gloom that sticks with you. And unlike a lot of novels that go for this (grimdark ones in particular), the oppressive sense of melancholy doesn’t feel excessive or unearned. There were horrors within living memory, but the present is not filled with them so much as it is devoid of hope. And that feels more honest to me. People cannot survive long in a state of constant terror, but they can last an eternity in a world without joy.

The book is also filled with photos of Paestum. I’m guessing Bryher was inspired by visiting the temple to write the story of its inhabitants. I have to say that apart from the gloomy one on the cover none of these photos are all that impressive. You can (and should) find better ones online.

I enjoyed this book. It’s a short read (only about 100 pages) so if you’re not sure if this is your thing you don’t have much to lose. I think the book would actually have benefitted from expansion. Maybe I’m spoiled by modern novels, where authors take full advantage of easy word processors and the availability of cheap publishing to write stories of immense depth (or at least length), but I felt like the book had the core of something grander within it. Perhaps if we spent more than a day with these characters (and there was certainly room to spend that) we could have felt their plight better. We never even see any Lucanians! Maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe the faceless enemy was a deliberate choice so that they could stand in for any oppressive regime. But I felt like she could have done more with this very interesting topic.

If the worst thing I have to say about a book is that it’s too short that’s a good sign it’s doing something right!

[Mely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novella set among the enslaved survivors of a defeated Greek city in the Peloponesian War (I think? Check date). Liked the concentration on the defeated and the price of survival; it's a sad book but not hopeless. Quiet and interior despite a plot to escape the city with a religious relic and found a new city elsewhere; the book starts off with an old, married couple, who are hoping to beg the priestess Harmonia for hemlock so they can kill themselves before they're separated by the man (lamed in the war) being sold off elsewhere, and the wife never is completely convinced leaving her city, however broken, is better than a peaceful death.

[Patricia Gallery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This simple yet timeless story of a once great civilization and people fallen by faceless conquerors into servitude and lost identity and purpose. A lesson for our times. Fall of the empire could happen to us.

[Margareth8537]

Quite a short book but very nicely written