Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths

by Natalie Haynes

"Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to!" - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale

The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks and have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories. Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts.

Today, a wealth of novels, plays, and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. However, modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, often showing little interest in telling women's stories. When they do, those women are frequently depicted as monstrous, vengeful, or simply evil.

Yet, Pandora—the first woman, who according to legend unleashed chaos upon the world—was not a villain. Even Medea and Phaedra have more nuanced stories than generations of retellings might suggest. In Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes—broadcaster, writer, and passionate classicist—redresses this imbalance.

Using Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point, she places the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with their male counterparts. After millennia of stories dominated by gods and men, be they Zeus or Agamemnon, Paris or Odysseus, Oedipus or Jason, the voices that resonate from these pages belong to Hera, Athena, Artemis, Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Eurydice, and Penelope.

"A treasure box of classical delights. Never has ancient misogyny been presented with so much wit and style." - historian Amanda Foreman

Details:

• 320 pages
• 10 b/w plates
• Published: 13/05/2021