Pandora's Jar
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Description
'Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to!' - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale
The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories.
Now, in Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes - broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist - redresses this imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point, she puts the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk.
Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and 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 unloosed 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
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Dieses Buch hat mir bewiesen, wie unheimlich stark wir Frauen eigentlich sind. Ja, natürlich die griechische Mythologie muss man immer unter dem Auge betrachten, dass man ja nicht weiß, ob diese Personen wirklich existiert haben. Aber Natalie schafft es, Belege zu bringen und Dinge darzustellen, dass eigentlich wir Frauen immer von Männern ins Messer gezwungen werden. Das Buch ist daher eine große Empfehlung.
This book was sich a great expierence. Natalie Haynes writes funny and brings the different Interpretations and translations into context. In greek mythology and society women did not get much room. So we visit the stories of Pandora, the Amazons, Helen, Medusa, and many more remarkable women. We are hearing their stories, without the villainization of the time they were potrayed (or our present time). I really love how Natalie Haynes disects the stories, and includes representations from other Art forms. Was Medusa really just an ugly Monster? Was Medea a cold hearted witch? We can see that the stories of women got twisted again and again. And how self absorbed the celebrated heros seem once you have a closer look. I recommend this book to everyone, not only greek mythology geeks.
Description
'Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to!' - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale
The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories.
Now, in Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes - broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist - redresses this imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point, she puts the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk.
Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and 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 unloosed 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
Book Information
Posts
Dieses Buch hat mir bewiesen, wie unheimlich stark wir Frauen eigentlich sind. Ja, natürlich die griechische Mythologie muss man immer unter dem Auge betrachten, dass man ja nicht weiß, ob diese Personen wirklich existiert haben. Aber Natalie schafft es, Belege zu bringen und Dinge darzustellen, dass eigentlich wir Frauen immer von Männern ins Messer gezwungen werden. Das Buch ist daher eine große Empfehlung.
This book was sich a great expierence. Natalie Haynes writes funny and brings the different Interpretations and translations into context. In greek mythology and society women did not get much room. So we visit the stories of Pandora, the Amazons, Helen, Medusa, and many more remarkable women. We are hearing their stories, without the villainization of the time they were potrayed (or our present time). I really love how Natalie Haynes disects the stories, and includes representations from other Art forms. Was Medusa really just an ugly Monster? Was Medea a cold hearted witch? We can see that the stories of women got twisted again and again. And how self absorbed the celebrated heros seem once you have a closer look. I recommend this book to everyone, not only greek mythology geeks.