From the author of A Thousand Ships comes a sharp and witty correction to the popularly known Greek myths. Centering on the women often villainized or pushed to the side, this book flips the narrative on its head, giving the women the same weight as the men in classic Greek myths. Natalie Haynes’ brilliant book makes readers question why they were so quick to accept the stories they’ve been told.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“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, author of The Handmaid's Tale
The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek mythology from Helen of Troy to Pandora and the Amazons to Medea.
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?
Natalie Haynes is the author of six books, including the nonfiction work Pandora’s Jar, which was a New York Times bestseller, and the novels A Thousand Ships, which was a national bestseller and short-listed for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Stone Blind. She has written and recorded nine series of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics for the BBC. Haynes has written for the Times, the Independent, the Guardian, and the Observer. She lives in London.
This month, have dinner with a family of true-crime aficionados, rewind time to a notorious brothel in ancient Pompeii, enjoy a magical twist on The Great Gatsby, recenter the Greek myths and the women often villainized in them, attend an elite boarding school with a chilling story of monsters and mystery, and unlock your imagination to fight against thirteen witches that are at the root of all evil in the world.
Whether you’re looking for a recommendation or just want to make sure you haven’t missed anything, here are our picks for the best mythological retellings to read right now.
For centuries, Greek Mythology only focused on the men, but lately we’ve seen some authors working to flip these narratives on their head — showing us what these myths are really made of. Experience these classic stories as you never have before and see these heroines in a brand-new light.
