
Pandora's Jar
Women in the Greek Myths
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Narrated by:
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Natalie Haynes
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By:
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Natalie Haynes
About this listen
This audio edition is expertly and enthusiastically read by the author, Natalie Haynes.
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.
Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. 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.
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. After millennia of stories telling of gods and men, be they Zeus or Agamemnon, Paris or Odysseus, Oedipus or Jason, the voices that sing from these pages are those of Hera, Athena and Artemis, and of Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Eurydice and Penelope.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Natalie Haynes (P)2020 Macmillan Publishers International LtdCritic reviews
"Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of...but read on!" (Margaret Atwood)
"Natalie Haynes is the nation's muse." (Adam Rutherford)
This was fascinating from start to finish!
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Book of the year
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Incredibe
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stunning, erudite and thoughtfully entertaining
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Fascinating
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Absolutely loved it!
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Utterly brilliant
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As well as refocusing the old tales more on the female protagonists, and in doing so often redressing a balance lost only in the intervening centuries, she grounds them firmly and fascinatingly in their cultural legacy today. I really enjoyed her riffs on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wonder Woman, and Beyoncé, among others. The best bit though is how the women in the myths come alive. Their lives were all really finely realised and absorbing, but the chapter on Medea was mesmerising. It takes some doing to write Medea's story sympathetically, if that's the right word, but I was there with her. I saw Diana Rigg play Euripides' Medea and felt wrung out emotionally afterwards, like everyone else. This, though calmly and rationally expounded felt comparable to that, which is the highest praise I can give it.
Marvellous book. Must read some more of her stuff..
A really interesting and enjoyable read.
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An engaging read to learn more about the classics
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Haynes also has the most wonderful voice to listen to.
Not a retelling, but a pretelling
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