Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths

In her book "Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths," Natalie Haynes explores the roles of women in Greek myths and challenges the traditional portrayal of them as villains or victims. She provides a fresh perspective on these iconic characters, highlighting their complexity and agency.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 13 May 2021
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

The Greek myths are among the most significant cultural foundations in the world, and they have been retold numerous times, but they rarely focus on the remarkable women at the center of these ancient stories. Now, in Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes, a broadcaster, writer, and passionate classicist, redresses this imbalance. She takes Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point and places the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the menfolk.

Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus. However, modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and they have routinely shown little interest in telling women's stories. And when they do, those women are often painted as monstrous, vengeful, or just plain evil. But Pandora, the first woman, who, according to legend, unleashed chaos upon the world, was not a villain, and even Medea and Phaedra have more nuanced stories than generations of retellings might indicate.

After millennia of stories telling of gods and men, be they Zeus or Odysseus, the voices that sing from these pages are those of Hera, Athena, and Artemis, and of 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

Weight: 230g
Dimension: 130 x 196 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509873142