Natalie Haynes' Pandora's Jar: Exploring the Role of Women in Ancient Greek Myths

Sally Bee: A great read looking at classical women from a female perspective for a change. Witty and erudite. I loved it.

United Kingdom on Nov 19, 2023

carmem: gostei do livro

Brazil on Oct 08, 2023

Kindle Customer: This is an academic read. Not light but not dry. It is one I will go back to again and again. In some blurbs it is termed a feminist take on the myths. I don't wholly agree. I think it is an alternative retelling appropriate to our times when women are finally recognised as being an essential part of life and history. For centuries social norms saw women as insignificant and writers wrote their stories accordingly. However, any reasonably intelligent person would look at these myths and see what is unsaid. Guys, you couldn't have done the heroics without the little woman there in the shadows. As for the so-called 'evil' women? Yeah, right, they are just expected to take all the violence without protest. Not always, but oh, the shock when they fight back. I loved all the references to ancient and modern plays, pictures and statues., Including modern tv and films. My, how well their stories stand up to retelling and for invisible women they did seem to be powerful inspiring muses. One last point to note. Miss Haynes referred to a modern statue which uncomfortably reversed the usual image of Perseus and the Medusa, in that she is shown alive holding the head of Perseus. I was curious...

United Kingdom on Oct 01, 2023

Mary Grace A. ValdezMary Grace A. Valdez:

United States on Aug 23, 2023

Fallon Hardaway Mason: We learn only certain versions of myth in high school. Maybe an expanded view in college. This is a discussion of certain women in mythology and their possible points of view. This is for anyone who wants to learn more in depth about women in mythology, whose voices are often silenced or dismissed as unimportant to the men of their time

United States on Jul 08, 2023

Joan: Super llibre.
Recomanat

Spain on Jul 06, 2023

AMorganna99: Some of my favorite chapters had to be the ones focused on Medusa, Medea, and the Amazons, although Penelope and Clytemnestra came close behind. With a sharp wit and occasional sarcasm to help keep her reader engaged, Haynes shreds whatever claims to the title hero men like Jason and Theseus have (and you really have to agree with her, especially about Theseus) to bring the story back around to the women. Medusa was hanging out in a cave not bothering anyone, having already suffered being sexually assaulted by Posiedon and cursed by Athene, she's sleeping and along comes this jerk with no personal grudge against her to chops off her head and weaponizes it. Every visual interpretation of this Haynes can find tends to make this moment both violent and sexual. What's that about, really?

Clytemnestra and Medea win Greece's awards for "worst wife" and "worst mother" because, Haynes points out, Greek men were terrified of powerful women. It kind of makes you want to travel back to when the plays were first performed and watch the male audience shake in their sandals- especially over Euripides' Medea. Or would they have been more afraid of Clytemnestra? A woman with no magical...

United States on Dec 03, 2022

Katie: I don't even know where to start in telling you how much I enjoyed this book! I am not super familiar with many of the women in Greek myth, so I was going in somewhat blindly to this book. But I am almost glad I didn't have any preconceived notions about these women's stories. The author does a masterful job of providing a well-researched history of each of the women featured, parsing out the various versions across history. It's obviously an academic-type book, in that it is, as I said, well-researched, but it is also immensely entertaining. Ms. Haynes has a way of adding just the right sarcasm or tongue-in-cheek observation at just the right moment. I also want to compliment the editors for a well edited book; I didn't find any editing errors, which is a rarity! Anyway, if you're interested in Greek myths, or women's stories, or really anything, I think you'll enjoy this. If you don't particularly like women, or should I say, strong women, you might be disappointed. Bravo, Natalie Haynes! I look forward to reading more of your work!!

United States on May 03, 2022

Marie Sembar: A Must for Mythology Readers

Pandora's Jar

Having read multiple mythology retellings this read was perfectly timed! The content was extensively researched, though I hesitate to say to excess because truly when you read a reference book as I believe this could be categorized you do want all the background! Thankfully Haynes spliced this history lesson with wit, anecdotes and pop culture usages of these mythological women! There's an evident passion to set the record straight about how retellings through history have rewritten and villainized many of these women.

My love for Greek mythology has grown immensely from this collection! There were a couple spoilers about the fate of some women or certain stories, but I had already read about those women in prior books. For the majority of these women, I am grateful that the book didn't disclose their demise. However, I can't be sure whether she chose to omit it or their fates are simply not included in historical text.

The advantage to Pandora's Jar is that I can refer back to the section of a specific individual as I continue my mythology journey! My favorite sections were Pandora and Clytemnestra! But all...

United States on Mar 11, 2022

FictionLover: I bought Natalie Haynes’ latest book after a Guardian review of it, and with increasing delight and a hunger to see where she, panoptically knowledgeable and gifted with the ability to write about Old Stuff in new and most entertaining ways, would take me.

Pandora led the charge, Greek mythical woman #1, an Eve-like figure, created on Zeus’s orders from clay as a ‘gift’ to Men to punish them for the (real) gift of Fire that Prometheus (whose name means ‘foresight’ I learned) gave to the then female-less race of Men. Fashioned from clay in the form of a woman she is taken down the slopes of Olympus by Hermes (the messenger of the Gods not the handbag maker) and – in one account – left in the care of Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus (his name means ‘hindsight’). It’s not a box, it’s a jar she carries and it is Epimetheus who opens it and lets out . . . well, we all know. Pandora (her name means ‘all-giving’), a woman, gets the blame for all eternity for releasing the ‘evils’ just as Eve is blamed forever for her original sin.

Natalie Haynes proceeds to unpick the various and often contradictory myths, with an eye for mistranslation of...

United Kingdom on Jun 06, 2021