A review by ladyfives
Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

4.0

Every telling of a myth is as valid as any other, of course, but women are lifted out of the equation with a monotonous frequency. And this provides ammunition for those who choose to believe that that's how stories always were and are.

Extremely in-depth and surprisingly light and funny, despite the often-grim subject matter. Pandora’s Jar was not quite what I expected: while it was full of examinations of these female characters that gave them a lot of praise, credit, and adoration, it also gave a nuanced view of which versions of myths we popularized in the last couple centuries and what it means that popular culture chose the versions it did.

It was a great surprise to see how many plays there are that give these characters starring roles—I was particularly surprised by Haynes’ breakdown of a debate between Helen and her accusers about what blame she played in the war (read: none). Haynes gave Ancient Athens’ sexism no passes, but instead outlined the depth (if not sympathy) some ancient writers gave to these characters that now, in 2021, we don’t collectively remember or think we’ve invented on our own. How curious it was to read about interpretations of Medea, when she’s lost more and more of her agency, usefulness, and voice in modern iterations! Especially neat to think about all the sanitizing stories go through, conveniently forgetting just how much kidnapping and rape there is (but, of course, the only time a man is punished for the crime, it’s when a woman falsely accused him). We can only really guess at why these processes happen.

This isn’t a heavy, citation-stuffed journal either. It’s playful and witty, and I found it difficult to put down. Haynes translates lines from plays with personality and (what I can assume to be) accuracy. All in all, I appreciated this look at versions of the myths I never read or was never taught, and the guesses at how audiences would have seen them at the time versus how we see them now.