Pandora’s Jar, Natalie Haynes
I picked this up somewhat on a whim, and then was hesitant to actually get round to it — I couldn’t quite say why. Which was silly, because once I picked it up, it immediately sucked me in: Haynes discusses the original portrayals of ten women from Greek mythology, what they meant to their original audiences and what they’ve come to mean. It’s not solely about rehabilitating them, but about looking again at them and everything they’ve meant — it doesn’t lionise Clytemnestra, even though it points out that her vengeance has some preeeetty solid reasoning behind it, for example.
I enjoyed the close reading of various texts, including some I knew from studying classics. I’d never viewed Phaedra so sympathetically, I must admit, even though I read the same version of Hippolytus (though I, too, found Hippolytus himself absolutely unbearable, ugh). Haynes often discusses the subtleties of translation, displaying an easy knowledge of the texts in their original form which frankly makes me jealous. (Not for nothing did I consider studying Classics next.)
I think of all them, I found the chapters on Medusa and Medea the most interesting — Haynes digs into the heart of their stories and displays it all, the good and the bad, and some of it may surprise you. Some of it is sadly unsurprising (surprise, patriarchy!). I found pretty much all of it fascinating, and it makes me a lot more interested to read Haynes’ fiction.
I feel I don’t know as much mythology as I want to, would you say this book is an okay start or better left until I delve deeper elsewhere?
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Hmmm, I think you might get a lot of it! It briefly discusses how we currently view the characters, in most cases, and the actual analysis is pretty in-depth. Maybe I’d read the Wikipedia page for each character before reading the chapter, just to form my own opinions to go in with? But other than that, I think it’d be great.
Great! Thank you 🙂
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Ooh I’ve had my eye on this – it sounds like everything I hoped for! Thank you for the nudge (and apologies if this shows up multiple times, my wifi is playing up)
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I enjoyed it a lot!
I recently snagged this (it doesn’t come out in the US until next March) and am excited to get to it. I love Greek mythology and have been into goddess archetypes for years, so this will fit into my studies quite nicely. So happy you enjoyed it!
It’s so weird sometimes when books take so long to be available elsewhere. o_o; Always surprises me. Hope you enjoy it too!