REVIEW: Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes

A short review of Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes.

I have long loved Greek myths. Growing up, I had children’s copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey in my bookcase. These were abridged and generally omitted the more serious and dark offenses of each story. But they captured my imagination and led me to the Percy Jackson series, with which I was absolutely obsessed, trying to guess at the age of 12 which Greek God was my parent, and when I would be attacked by Minotaurs and the Furies and get whisked away to ‘Camp Half-Blood’. Since then, Greek myths have been a fun extracurricular interest of mine; I will always spend hours in the Ancient Greek section of the British Museum and will always buy a fictionalized modern retelling of an ancient story.

When I came upon Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes in my local bookshop I was immediately drawn to the title. A book all about the women in the Greek myths is not something I’ve ever come across before. The famous works written by Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, are all typically centered around seemingly powerful men. It’s true that the women, if not supporting cast members known for their more boring traits of ‘loyalty’ or ‘chastity’, are the villains of the story and people to fear. Haynes works hard in this book to correct the imbalance in Greek Mythology, showing how the women at the center of these stories, these supposed villains or minor characters are much more important and wonderful than we see in modern tellings.

One of the most famous female characters featured in the book is Medusa. The vision of Medusa that we see in popular culture, in movies, and books is simply a horrible woman. In the Percy Jackson books, she is evil and bloodthirsty. She is a woman that we love to hate, turning people to stone all around her. Haynes gives us another take on her as a person and a woman, beginning by reminding us of how Medusa became the monster in Greek Mythology. Medusa was hated by Athena for being raped by Posieden in one of her temples, and cursed by her so that her beautiful hair turned into a mass web of snakes, she became destined to turn anyone she looked at to stone. Not only that, but when Perseus finally kills Medusa in his own story, he is only able to achieve this when she is fast asleep, and with the help of the Gods. Haynes reminds us that most artistic depictions of this murder show a still, sleeping Medusa and a fierce Perseus standing over her with his sword raised looking like a barbarian. Medusa, it seems, is a much more complicated woman than depicted in modern teaching. I highly recommend this chapter as it changed my outlook on this character I thought I knew everything about.

My favorite chapter of all was centered around a woman in Greek myth I often forget about, Medea. Haynes spends much of the chapter retelling the story of Medea in Euripides’s play Hippolytus, a play in which many modern famous actors long to perform. As Haynes points out, Medea is one of the most interesting and complex characters of all time. In simple terms, Medea is a mother who killed her own children in order to get revenge upon her estranged husband, and also murdered his new bride. But when examined more deeply, she is one of the most intelligent women in Greek Mythology. In Euripides’s play, she is much smarter than every other character including her husband Jason, and she even manages to trick the Greek chorus, not something easily done. At the end of the chapter, I actually had respect and adoration for the horrible woman at the center of this story. I saw this woman from a completely different point of view than had been presented to me in the past, and I have never wanted to attend a performance of a Greek tragedy more.

Haynes’s book sheds a fantastic modern light on these ancient stories. To take one example, by comparing Medea to Beyonce in her Lemonade music video, the picture of a woman scorned, we are reminded that these women of Greek Myth are just that: women. Women who tended to suffer extremely, often at the hands of the powerful men in their lives, or at the mercy of the Gods. From reading Haynes’s words, I have never more wanted to reread the Greek myths I know so well, and read them with the fresh eyes she has given me.

4.5 STARS

Where to buy online: https://www.waterstones.com/book/pandoras-jar/natalie-haynes/9781509873142

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