I will start by saying I did not realize what I was getting into when I picked up my first Natalie Haynes book, Pandora’s Jar. I’d never read any of her other works, and to be honest this one was front and center at my local Barnes & Noble. Already having a TBR pile larger than I’d rather admit, I really didn’t need another book on Greek mythology, but after a quick look at the back, I couldn’t not leave with this book.
Book Blurb
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 tasked with causing all the world’s suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Haynes reveals, in ancient 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-and-wife (turned Freudian sticking point), at once the cleverest person in the story and yet often unnoticed. She considers Helen of Troy, whose marriage to Paris “caused” the Trojan war—a somewhat uneven response to her decision to leave her husband for another man. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce—getting her revenge on the man who hurt and betrayed her, if by extreme measures. And she turns her eye to Medusa, the original monstered woman, whose stare turned men to stone, but who wasn’t always a monster, and had her hair turned to snakes as punishment for being raped.
Pandora’s Jar brings nuance and care to the millennia-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why are we so quick to villainize these women in the first place—and so eager to accept the stories we’ve been told?
What I Loved
Topic
Firstly, I loved the topic of this book. Greek women in mythology.
I compare them to wolves.
Wolves are always getting the bad wrap in stories, simply because they’re wolves. They must be the bad guys, they must be the antagonists. That is their role in fables and stories. (Not you Paranormal Romance, we know you love wolves😏)
Such is the way for women in Greek myth. You’re a woman, therefore you inherently do/say/bring about bad things to everyone. Be it a decade long war, a famine, your brother’s cousins’ son dying. Woman’s fault.
Is that an over exaggeration? Maybe, but only slightly.
I mean even before reading this book we know Medusa is cursed with snakes for hair because she has the audacity to get raped in a temple of Athene. Hera constantly is going after Zeus’s many offspring simply for existing because her husband/brother can’t keep it in his pants. The list is pretty long.
That being said, some of the stories she tells us really do show some women being right monsters. Some with good intentions, some with mad intentions. It’s refreshing to see that she doesn’t just show us stories of women totally being misconstrued, that there are women in Greek myth that really were pretty horrible, but still gives us a little more insight and background.
The logic or lack thereof in some Greek myths is astounding to readers of today. So for Natalie Haynes to take these stories that I thought I was familiar with, and give me more information, from multiple sources, is amazing. I ate up every chapter. It was like reading trivia on movies off IMDB.
Voice
It kind of took me back how such an arguably, textbook type read, could contain so much attitude.
I loved it!
Natalie Haynes is a stand-up comedian as mentioned above, and you can hear it as she describes these women and what various authors have done to them throughout time.
How modern authors (by comparison to Euripides and the like) have disgraced Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, by turning her war belt given to her by her father Ares into a girdle. A girdle… She is even depicted with said war belt on ancient pottery dated back to 480 BCE. But girdle sounds a lot less threatening and warrior-like. The girdle appeared when the story was translated into English.
She also takes a lot of pot shots at Freud which I thought was hilarious. Since sex is as common a topic in Greek myth as war, Haynes would make little quips here and there wondering how Freud would interpret a certain scene in a story.
She was being facetious.
What I Didn’t Love
Nothing…
Kind of not joking. This book was exactly what it declared itself to be. Literary Criticism.
The only thing I really wanted to see more of in this book was well, more. Don’t get me wrong, she goes into great detail on each woman she covers, citing old plays, art depictions, poems etc. I just really could have kept reading.
All the chapters were approximately between 24-34 pages long, so they all shared equal “screen” time with us. But in some instances those extra few pages I could’ve enjoyed elsewhere. Helen’s story is one of the longer ones, and it is a good story. They all are. But I personally am a huge fan of creatures of myth, so I was looking for a little more on Medusa. That’s just personal preference though.
In Conclusion
If you didn’t enjoy reading those old myth books in school, chances are you won’t enjoy this book. This book has more citing in the telling of stories than those did and I can see that being a drawback for some who just come for a good tale.
If, however, you loved and enjoyed reading those books on mythology, I expect you’ll enjoy Natalie Hayne’s Pandora’s Jar. You’re going to read it, and then have to find someone willing (or unwilling) to listen as you describe what you’ve just read. If you’re lucky that someone will also be someone willing to discuss it with you. It’s one of those books.
I give it 5 out of 5
Until next time,
