Reviews - Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths

3.43k reviews for:

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths

Natalie Haynes

4.28 AVERAGE

hermusings's review against another edition

4.5

funny informative reflective

Natalie Haynes single handedly got be back into reading in 2021 and is still just as amazing in 2023!

This is an incredible resource on some of the most well known women in Greek Mythology.
Haynes fills in gaps and brings to light aspects of their stories that are rarely highlighted.
It’s a slightly funny & insightful read.

“We cannot hope to make sense of our stories or ourselves, myths are a mirror of us after all, if we refuse to look at half of the picture or worst don’t even notice half of it is missing”

ohkayeig's review against another edition

4.0

medium-paced

ems_booktopia's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

enbyglitch's review against another edition

5.0

Incredible! Didn't even realize until I was ~50 pages in that it was a scholarly book rather than another retelling - but was glad all the same.

Haynes' explorations of the many depictions of these women is fascinating, and unique for the multiple narratives and perspectives she offers.

I really enjoyed the passion with which Haynes praises Euripides and Ovid, and the timeline she maintains where important to her analysis.

It is frustrating that all of these mythological characters are the victims of deep misogyny in their own stories - but was lovely to learn about the people who gave them real depth and nuance which is lacking even today.

Would have been curious to hear Haynes' thoughts on modern interpretations such as 'Circe' and the many characters in the video game 'Hades', but understand that this is focused on older myths.

An inspiring book, one that I'll certainly return to and hope to perhaps emulate one day