Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths
by Natalie Haynes
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The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek mythology from Helen of Troy to Pandora and the Amazons to Medea. The tellers of Greek myths-historically men-have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil-like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is show more tasked with causing all the world's suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Hayes reveals, in early Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar... which is far more likely to tip over. In Pandora's Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman's perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She looks at women such as Jocasta, Oedipus' mother-turned-lover (turned Freudian sticking point), who gouged out her eyes upon discovering the truth about her new relationship, and was less helpless than we have been led to believe. She considers Helen of Troy-whose face famously "launch'd a thousand ships," but was decidedly more child than woman when she was accused of "causing" the Trojan war. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce-getting her revenge on the men who hurt and betrayed her, perhaps justifiably so. And she turns her eye to Medusa-the serpent-like seductress whose stare turned men to stone-who wasn't always a monster, and was far more victim than perpetrator. Pandora's Jar brings nuance and care to the centuries-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why we were so quick to villainize these women in the first place-and so eager to accept the stories we've been told? show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is simply fabulous. At a basic level it aims to describe how 10 women in Greek myths have been variously represented through the ages. And it takes its selection across a range of famous and infamous women, looking at how they were presented in different plays, poetry and graphical representations of the Greek times, moving forwards to Roman authors, then into more modern times. They have changed as different ages have re-interpreted them, and not always for the better.
And it is so much more than that. This is told by a highly intelligent woman who wears her learning lightly. She uses intellect as well as wit and snark to make her points about these various women and their different representations. And she is not afraid to tackle show more some really difficult areas, murder, infanticide, rape and false rape accusation are all covered in here as illustrative of different points. These women were not 2 dimensional, they were marvellously complex and human (even when semi divine) with motives, desires, fears and emotions that are immediately relateable. That later tellings have often diminished their role is not the myth's fault - and it points to we need more modern retellings that explore these women in full again, not just the cardboard cutout representations that we are generally faced with. She also makes some very telling points about language use and translation choices that tend to present certain women in certain ways when there may be multiple meanings to the phrases employed.
It felt to me a lot like that point early in the evening with some close friends, when the wine is in the glasses, but you're all still sober enough to ask a question and discover that you have an expert in your midst, and the next 15 minutes are some of the most illuminating in your week. You all learn something, but it's enjoyable - that is this book. It was not at all highbrow or difficult to follow, she makes no apology for using examples from cinema as well as from art and ancient plays. I listened to this and it was brilliant. Probably my favourite line: "to a classicist, Marlow is modern" show less
And it is so much more than that. This is told by a highly intelligent woman who wears her learning lightly. She uses intellect as well as wit and snark to make her points about these various women and their different representations. And she is not afraid to tackle show more some really difficult areas, murder, infanticide, rape and false rape accusation are all covered in here as illustrative of different points. These women were not 2 dimensional, they were marvellously complex and human (even when semi divine) with motives, desires, fears and emotions that are immediately relateable. That later tellings have often diminished their role is not the myth's fault - and it points to we need more modern retellings that explore these women in full again, not just the cardboard cutout representations that we are generally faced with. She also makes some very telling points about language use and translation choices that tend to present certain women in certain ways when there may be multiple meanings to the phrases employed.
It felt to me a lot like that point early in the evening with some close friends, when the wine is in the glasses, but you're all still sober enough to ask a question and discover that you have an expert in your midst, and the next 15 minutes are some of the most illuminating in your week. You all learn something, but it's enjoyable - that is this book. It was not at all highbrow or difficult to follow, she makes no apology for using examples from cinema as well as from art and ancient plays. I listened to this and it was brilliant. Probably my favourite line: "to a classicist, Marlow is modern" show less
If you enjoyed Circe, this one will KNOCK YOU ON YOUR ASS! The author's prior book, A Thousand Ships, retold the Trojan War from the perspective of the women caught up in it. This one focuses on common Greek myths and features both ancient heroines, the Amazons, Penelope, Eurydice; the ones in the middle, Pandora, Jocasta, Helen, and Phaedra; and the villains, Medusa, Clytemnestra, and Medea. Haynes provides witty, thorough analysis of each character, based on her own comprehensive study and on works by ancient playwrights and philosophers as well as modern interpreters. Along with such familiars as Homer, Euripides, Ovid, Hesiod, Sophocles, Aesop, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Pindar, Pliny, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Virgil, Plutarch, show more Shakespeare, and Aristophanes, there are contributions by lesser-known Greeks, and by modern sources such as Agatha Christie, Hadestown, Black Orpheus, and Orange is the New Black. Most enjoyable are the surprising interpretations, such as her theory that perhaps Eurydice would have preferred to stay in Hades rather than go back to a life with the unreliable and selfish Orpheus. Illustrations of paintings, sculptures, and pottery add greatly to the text.
Quotes: "The Greeks were enormous fans of what we might call folk-etymology, but a less generous person might describe as nonsense."
"We are so often the authors of our own misfortunes because of the same qualities which make us brave, or hopeful, or loving, in the first place.”
“As we saw with Clytemnestra, there were few things more alarming to Greek men than the machinations of a clever woman, and Medea is the cleverest of them all.” show less
Quotes: "The Greeks were enormous fans of what we might call folk-etymology, but a less generous person might describe as nonsense."
"We are so often the authors of our own misfortunes because of the same qualities which make us brave, or hopeful, or loving, in the first place.”
“As we saw with Clytemnestra, there were few things more alarming to Greek men than the machinations of a clever woman, and Medea is the cleverest of them all.” show less
In this excellent exploration of women in Greek mythology, Natalie Haynes unpacks the stories of ten well-known figures. She describes the many variations of their stories in ancient times, illustrating how different authors and playwrights portrayed the characters. Haynes also explores artwork, from ancient pottery to modern paintings, and how these too provide varied interpretations. And finally, she compares the original text to more contemporary retellings and scholarly works. This analysis shows how authors diminished the original role of women to highlight the accomplishments of men, and glossed over the ancient authors’ references to sexual assault or other trauma to focus instead on a woman who is inexplicably angry and show more violent. From Pandora to Penelope, and the eight women in between, I found this endlessly fascinating. show less
Hayne's retelling of the stories of 10 women prominent in Greek mythology casts a new light on the characters we think we've always known. Looking through a feminist lens, with 21st century perspectives and attitudes, Haynes taps multiple sources for the classic Greek dramas featuring female characters and turns up some interesting alternatives and fascinating conjectures.
None of the subjects will be really new to readers with even a fundamental background in classic literature: Pandora, who brought trouble to the world; Jocasta, who unknowingly wed her son Oedipus; Helen of Troy (need we say more?); Medusa of the serpentine tresses; the mysterious Amazons; Clytemnestra, whose homecoming gift to her husband after the Trojan War was less show more than welcoming; Eurydice, whom Orpheus attempted to rescue from the Underworld; tragic Phaedra, whose love for her stepson led to tragedy; Medea, who is remembered mostly for a crime unthinkable to modern minds; and Penelope, who waited two decades for her wandering Odysseus to come home.
Each of these women (or groups of women, in the case of the Amazons), is given a separate chapter. Haynes draws from many ancient (and some contemporary) sources, rather than going with the homogenized and sterilized version most readers encounter in their youthful introductions to the classics. (Woe unto any middle-school teacher who attempts to clarify exactly what was going on with Leda and that swan, let alone why the satyrs were always attempting to carry off nymphs and dryads.) She is able to propose alternative histories, outcomes, and motivations for the characters, and does it with a dry wit – “abduction as a sign of affection is obviously a more acceptable phenomenon in Ovid’s time than it is today”. But behind the clever asides, there remains a strong undercurrent of feminism and an admiration for these female characters who have endured through millennia and who even now have something important to say to us.
Let us look briefly at Haynes’ study of Medusa, one of three sister demigoddesses. She began life as a beautiful woman, albeit one who could turn mortals to stone by her stare, was seduced (read “raped") by Poseidon, in a temple of Athene. The outraged deity in this scenario is Athene, who takes her revenge on the victim by turning her beautiful hair into snakes. She retreats to a cave, and eventually the hero Perseus comes along to whack off her head at the behest of King Polydectes (who has ulterior motives of his own). As Haynes reminds us, “Medusa isn’t a monster. She’s a woman who was raped and then punished for it with snakish hair. … She is damaged first by a god, then by a goddess. And finally Perseus comes looking for her to kill her and mutilate her to satisfy the whim of another man.”
Many of the characters in the book have suffered similar outrages, tolerated (even if only in histories, morality tales, and myth) by a culture developed and driven exclusively by men. It’s interesting that dramatists even of that stultifyingly patriarchal system could and often did write differing versions of the same basic tale, giving many of these women more agency which has largely been subsumed in the better-known depictions.
It's a comprehensive, fascinating, and thought-provoking study, and it belongs on any feminist or classicist bookshelf. Fortunately, readers who subscribe to both schools can get by with only one copy. show less
None of the subjects will be really new to readers with even a fundamental background in classic literature: Pandora, who brought trouble to the world; Jocasta, who unknowingly wed her son Oedipus; Helen of Troy (need we say more?); Medusa of the serpentine tresses; the mysterious Amazons; Clytemnestra, whose homecoming gift to her husband after the Trojan War was less show more than welcoming; Eurydice, whom Orpheus attempted to rescue from the Underworld; tragic Phaedra, whose love for her stepson led to tragedy; Medea, who is remembered mostly for a crime unthinkable to modern minds; and Penelope, who waited two decades for her wandering Odysseus to come home.
Each of these women (or groups of women, in the case of the Amazons), is given a separate chapter. Haynes draws from many ancient (and some contemporary) sources, rather than going with the homogenized and sterilized version most readers encounter in their youthful introductions to the classics. (Woe unto any middle-school teacher who attempts to clarify exactly what was going on with Leda and that swan, let alone why the satyrs were always attempting to carry off nymphs and dryads.) She is able to propose alternative histories, outcomes, and motivations for the characters, and does it with a dry wit – “abduction as a sign of affection is obviously a more acceptable phenomenon in Ovid’s time than it is today”. But behind the clever asides, there remains a strong undercurrent of feminism and an admiration for these female characters who have endured through millennia and who even now have something important to say to us.
Let us look briefly at Haynes’ study of Medusa, one of three sister demigoddesses. She began life as a beautiful woman, albeit one who could turn mortals to stone by her stare, was seduced (read “raped") by Poseidon, in a temple of Athene. The outraged deity in this scenario is Athene, who takes her revenge on the victim by turning her beautiful hair into snakes. She retreats to a cave, and eventually the hero Perseus comes along to whack off her head at the behest of King Polydectes (who has ulterior motives of his own). As Haynes reminds us, “Medusa isn’t a monster. She’s a woman who was raped and then punished for it with snakish hair. … She is damaged first by a god, then by a goddess. And finally Perseus comes looking for her to kill her and mutilate her to satisfy the whim of another man.”
Many of the characters in the book have suffered similar outrages, tolerated (even if only in histories, morality tales, and myth) by a culture developed and driven exclusively by men. It’s interesting that dramatists even of that stultifyingly patriarchal system could and often did write differing versions of the same basic tale, giving many of these women more agency which has largely been subsumed in the better-known depictions.
It's a comprehensive, fascinating, and thought-provoking study, and it belongs on any feminist or classicist bookshelf. Fortunately, readers who subscribe to both schools can get by with only one copy. show less
In [Pandora's Jar], Haynes takes the well-known Greek myths and shows where women, who could easily be central to the story (and in some of the oldest versions of the myths are), are instead pushed to the side. Each chapter focuses on a different woman. I enjoyed the sections on Helen, Clytemnestra, and Medea best. Some of the other chapters, where I had less personal background knowledge of the people referenced, were less interesting to me.
While I really liked parts of this, and love Haynes's humorous style of writing, I did get bored and found some of it to be too repetitive and a bit unfocused.
I think this is one to dip into, maybe just reading a few of the chapters with characters/stories that interest you most.
While I really liked parts of this, and love Haynes's humorous style of writing, I did get bored and found some of it to be too repetitive and a bit unfocused.
I think this is one to dip into, maybe just reading a few of the chapters with characters/stories that interest you most.
This is a fascinating exploration—or rather, a re-evaluation—of the roles a selection of women have played in Greek mythology. In the original texts (at least, those which we still have access to), women were often drawn as victims or villains with relatively little voice or action, other than in terms of contributing to the heroes' adventures.
Each chapter features a different woman: from Pandora to Penelope, and visiting Phaedra, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, Medea and others along the way. The author gives an overview of how each woman seems to have been portrayed in the play or text where she appeared (and received by the audiences of the time), and then offers alternative analyses: their backgrounds and untold stories, so to say.
I'm show more already fairly familiar with several of the texts covered, but I don't think a reader needs any special background knowledge to understand the discussions. The tone is chatty and the prose very readable. I only spotted a couple of typos. References are unobtrusive and there are a few book recommendations at the end, but this isn't a formal academic text.
Maybe it says something that as soon as I finished reading this book, I treated myself to a collection of Euripides' plays! show less
Each chapter features a different woman: from Pandora to Penelope, and visiting Phaedra, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, Medea and others along the way. The author gives an overview of how each woman seems to have been portrayed in the play or text where she appeared (and received by the audiences of the time), and then offers alternative analyses: their backgrounds and untold stories, so to say.
I'm show more already fairly familiar with several of the texts covered, but I don't think a reader needs any special background knowledge to understand the discussions. The tone is chatty and the prose very readable. I only spotted a couple of typos. References are unobtrusive and there are a few book recommendations at the end, but this isn't a formal academic text.
Maybe it says something that as soon as I finished reading this book, I treated myself to a collection of Euripides' plays! show less
My rating: 4.5⭐️
Having read and loved A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes I was eagerly looking forward to reading Pandora’s Jar : Women in the Greek Myths and I was not disappointed!
The author describes Greek myths as “protean” stating that they operate in different timelines- the one in which they are set and the timelines of the subsequent versions and retellings. Each chapter in this book is devoted to a female character from the Greek myths and the author draws from multiple sources to discuss how these characters have been presented, represented and interpreted over the years. Chapters are dedicated to Pandora, Jocasta, Helen, Medusa, The Amazons, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, Phaedra, Medea and Penelope. Popular opinion and show more numerous translators and interpreters have defined these women and their roles in the myths -whether regarded as famous or infamous, labeled and judged as good (Penelope) or bad (Clytemnestra) and in many cases, held responsible for events that had more powerful forces at play (Medusa, Pandora, Helen) or marginalized and relegated to the background in the role of mother or wife (Jocasta), all the while waxing eloquent about the heroic exploits of their male counterparts. But as Haynes explains it, these women are so much more than a unidimensional presence in those stories, the narrative perspectives of which may differ depending upon the writer, narrator or translator. The author provides a broad overview of how these characters have been depicted in not only literature but art, theatre, music and film and the ensuing discussion of how and why these depictions and interpretations vary makes for an absorbing read.
Haynes references the works of Hesiod, Homer, Ovid, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles and other sources while also eloquently describing some surviving antiquarian artifacts and relatively newer artwork (paintings, sculptures etc) depicting the characters and scenes from the various versions of the Greek myths. The child friendly versions of the myths as presented by Nathaniel Hawthorne or Roger Lancelyn Green are also discussed in the context of how authors choose to whitewash the not-so-heroic exploits of popular heroes in order to emphasize the virtues of said character. I also enjoyed the more contemporary references interspersed in the discussions ranging from cinematic renderings such as Clash of the Titans and the more recent Wonder Woman franchise to how the myths have influenced select works of Dame Agatha Christie as well as characters and episodes from Star Trek or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even Beyonce.
It should be noted that Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths is not a retelling or reimagining of the myths in the strictest terms but an insightful exploration into the different versions of the characters that have been presented through the ages. Smart, witty, engaging and brilliantly researched, Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes is a joy to read for fans of Greek mythology and especially those with an interest in learning more about the women in the myths. I loved the details of the art and artifacts described in each of the chapters and wished that there could have been more pictures embedded with the text. I found myself looking these up on the internet and that truly enriched my reading experience. Not only does Natalie Haynes explore how and why these women and their stories have been defined the way they have but in doing so also motivates you to question your own observations understanding of the women (and the men) in the Greek myths. While I enjoyed all the chapters in the book, I have to mention that those devoted to Pandora, Medusa and The Amazons were my favorites.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for providing a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. show less
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ThingScore 75
With Pandora’s Jar, [Haynes] returns to nonfiction to examine the origin stories and cultural legacies of the best-known women of classical literature, with the characteristic blend of scholarship and sharp humour that will be familiar to fans of her Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics.
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The Guardian Book of the Day (2020-10-13)
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- Original publication date
- 2020-10-01; 2022-03-29 (US publication) (US publication)
- People/Characters
- Pandora; Jocasta; Helen; Medusa; Hippolyta; Penthesilea (show all 14); Clytemnestra; Eurydice; Phaedra; Medea; Penelope; Hera; Artemis; Athena
- Important places
- Ancient Greece
- Epigraph
- [None]
- Dedication
- For my mum, who always thought a woman with an axe was more interesting than a princess
- First words
- When Harry Hamlin stood behind a pillar in the darkness of Medusa's lair in the Ray Harryhausen film Clash of the Titans, flames flickering off his shield, his face glistening with sweat, my brother and I were transfix... (show all)ed.
Introduction.
When we think of Pandora, we probably have a picture in our minds.
Pandora. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)This book is an attempt to fill in some of the blank space.
- Publisher's editor
- George Morley (editor); Chloe May (desk editor); Susan Opie (copy editor)
- Blurbers
- Abdessamad, Farah; Atkinson, Kate; Atwood, Margaret; Ellis, Samantha; Foreman, Amanda; Gaiman, Neil (show all 10); Haddon, Mark; Higgins, Charlotte; Mackay, Neil; Rutherford, Adam
- Original language
- English
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- Genres
- General Nonfiction, Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 292.211 — Religion Other religions Classical religion (Greek and Roman religion) Theological Orientations and Doctrines Various Objects of Worship Gods & Goddesses
- LCC
- BL795 .W65 .H39 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Religions. Mythology. Rationalism Religions. Mythology. Rationalism History and principles of religions European. Occidental Classical (Etruscan, Greek, Roman)
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