“It is a wretched fate to be a woman.” - Phaedra, in Medea by Euripides
Natalie Hayne’s Pandora’s Jar proves this point time and time again. Pandora, Medusa, Helen, and more– these women’s stories have been shaped by men for centuries. Usually a woman driven by lust or possessed by jealousy, these watered down versions of Greek women ignore the pain and suffering they have gone through to influence their decisions. Was medusa deserving of losing her head? Or was she a woman cursed to be a monster as punishment for something totally out of her control? Haynes does a marvelous job of walking us through these questions and many others as we look into ancient text to discover who these women truly were and what they represented.
Mythology has always reflected society. It’s what the greeks believed, what they then interpreted, and how we interpret that. To me, this makes the resurgence and retelling of myths even more exciting, because with books like this, Circe, Ariadne, and more, we add nuance to mythology and put women back at the forefront of their own stories. Women have always been in these mythologies, so I’m glad we are now giving them the space that their complex characters deserve.
I also loved how Haynes goes through many of the different interpretations of myth rhetorically and historically to get the fullest picture of each woman and her desires, fears, etc. I think she had a tendency to go on tangents, which kept this book from being 5 stars, but it’s still one that I highly recommend. Overall, I love any opportunity to bring to light new elements of old stories and find nuance where it had previously been erased by old white men.
If you’re a fan of greek mythology or are anxiously awaiting the new Percy Jackson series I highly recommend you pick this up and check out her other work.