Women of the Ancient World: Elodie Harper & Nikita Gill
By Parina Patel (Sixth Form Academy)
Nikita Gill and Elodie Harper were in conversation with Samira Ahmed about their novels Hecate and Boudica’s Daughter. Through their novels they explore the very current issue of displacement and the aftermath of war, as well as violence against women through their characters Solina and Hecate.
During the evening they both discussed the mechanics behind their work, with Harper taking us on a journey between two settings: Celtic England versus Rome. She delved into the challenge of writing about the violence inflicted upon Boudicca’s daughter, not wanting to ‘commodify’ the act of rape. She instead subtly hints at the act in her novel as the chapter, much like a victim’s recollection of the event, is fragmented and the ending abrupt. One of my favourite things about the evening apart was Harper’s refreshing take on Solina and Paullinus’ relationship. Unlike many novels, she doesn’t romanticise this disturbing dynamic of oppressor versus victim, but instead shares with us the complex, messy and painful nature of their relationship.
Gill on the other hand brings us on a journey to the underworld, exploring her love of mythology and poetry, which inspired her work ‘Hecate’. She discusses the work of the Greek poet Hesiod, the ‘Insta poet’ of his time, and her disagreement with the depiction of Hecate as someone who betrayed her family. Gill, like Harper, poses the question of survival in her novel but on a magnitudinal scale, asking ‘where do you flee when it’s a God pursuing you?’
‘Our tragedy is displacement is still occurring in 2025’. Although fictional, these novels explore some of the most relevant and complex topics from war and the aftermath of it mirroring the wars currently occurring in Palestine and Ukraine, violence against women – sadly the statistics speak for themselves – and history repeating itself. Gill herself explained that these novels are only relevant because these things are still happening as we’re, ‘one foot in the past, one in the modern time’. Hopefully one day they won’t have to be relevant; maybe, one day, a book can be enjoyed as just a piece of historical fiction.
