it’s me. hi. 🫴🏻just putting this book on a pedestal because it deserves all the love. greek mythology is my love language.

✨Pandora’s Jar: Women in Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes✨
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

If you’re a fan of Greek Mythology and you’ve had this sitting in your reading queue for the better part of a year (like me) then I have three words for you.
Shame on us.
This book is a gem. Natalie Haynes uses her expert research skills to bridge the past with the present to shed light on some of the women who deserve their turn in the spotlight.
Pandora. Jocasta. Helen. Medusa. The Amazons. Clytemnestra. Eurydice. Phaedra. Medea. Penelope.
Written like a series of nonfiction quasi-novellas, each woman(women) gets her time on the page as Haynes dives deep into the original classics and their more modern retellings whether in print or on the screen.

“Myths may be home to the miraculous, but they are also mirrors of ourselves.”

This is the oldest book in my NetGalley queue I’m embarrassed to admit. Sometimes greek myth lit can feel daunting, but as I listened to the audiobook I felt like a young college student sitting in my favorite class wishing it would never end. I never knew that in the original classic poems, Pandora didn’t open a box, but instead it was a jar. Mind blown.
And the new, eye-opening information Haynes shares continues throughout and written in such an eloquent, beautiful way that it only added more admiration to my borderline-obsessed greek mythology loving heart. I’ll definitely be getting a copy for my forever shelf. The audiobook is stellar, but there are illustrations/images that you don’t want to miss in the physical book.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read & review this book. It’s a new favorite!

I actually ended up purchasing this book in addition to the advanced copy because I loved the premise so much. Haynes is an expert essay writer. I expected more stories and less critical analysis but this book was a refreshing take on and analysis of Greek myths both in their historical context and for today.

I have really enjoyed the recent surge of female-centric retellings of Greek mythology, like Circe and A Thousand Ships, and I was hoping this book would contain similar short stories. It definitely did not meet my expectations but that’s totally my fault. This book examines ten female characters from classic Greek mythology and examines how they are portrayed in various mediums - film, text, artwork, etc. It was interesting, and I enjoyed Haynes’s wit and sarcasm, but I had a hard time getting through this book. It felt like I showed up to a party where I vaguely knew a handful of other guests, but every time I tried to join a conversation, everyone was talking about people I didn’t know or places I’d never been. I was just nodding along, trying to pay attention but feeling like an outsider. I don’t think I have the proper foundational knowledge to truly enjoy this book. Again, not Haynes’s fault. I just don’t think I’m the intended audience for a book like this.

This was a fantastic dive into some of the women featured in popular Greek myths. Greek retellings and discussions are some of my favorite things to read and I always look for new titles to read on this.

I love how this also took the time to talk about females that are overshadowed by the Greats (the persephones, circes, Athena’s). I was also a fan of the sources sited throughout the book (homer, Ovid, Hesiod, ect) as well as newer artifacts, papers and sculptures.

The wonderful thing about these myths and their endurance through time is watching what the newer generations make of them and how we interpret them today. I very much enjoyed this.

I am a huge fan of mythology and when that mythology is focused on women, I'm even more of a fan.

Pandora's Jar does not disappoint and Natalie Haynes has delivered a timeless read here that fans of mythology will treasure for years to come.

Pandora's Jar is a retelling of the overlooked women in Greek mythology. The book covers both important and minor women in Greek mythology and looks at their life through a non-patriarchal lens. A must-read by Greek mythology lovers.

Pandora's Jar: Women In Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes is an account of the women found in some of the most famous Greek myths. The book goes into the details of their roles and their importance to the stories. It was refreshing to look at these stories from a female perspective, where the female characters were often given a minor focus. In a predominantly patriarchal society, it is easy to look over some of these famous women and their roles in myth; however, it does a great disservice to the original stories.
I rated Pandora's Jar 4 out of 5 stars. Hayes does an excellent job bringing these women to life. Her writing eloquently shares the female perspective in a new way, finally bringing these oft-forgotten women to the main stage. The resulting story is both eloquent and educational, with plenty of sarcasm and humor. If you enjoy classic stories and Greek Myths and crave a women's view, Pandora's Jar is a must-read!

As someone who is interested in Greek mythology (well, what queer isn't, though?), I loved this piece on the women of beloved mythology. It's very engaging, witty, and all around a fun read.

Oooh, Natalie Haynes as done it again. She is a champion for ancient women and I love it. Plus, who knew that Pandora never had a box? Mind blown.

After writing about the women of the Trojan War in her previous book, A Thousand Ships, she's now addressing the gender disparity in Greek writing by changing classic myths so that women are just as powerful as the men.

And honestly, who doesn't grow up OBSESSED with these stories as soon as we first hear about them as a kid?? So it's about time that the females get more airplay.

This book has seriously changed the way I examine female roles in early Greek myths and also other ancient stories. Overall, a fantastic book!

This is such an incredible book if you enjoy mythology! You can tell that Haynes took her time while researching for this book, and made sure that each woman she covered is shown as much more than what is traditionally written about her.

This is my first Natalie Haynes book ever, and I absolutely loved it. The book is a nonfiction examination of the evolving interpretation of ten mythological Greek women - including Helen, the Amazons, and Pandora - from centuries before the common era (BCE) to the modern twenty-first century. The objective of the book is to restore the more empowered interpretation of antiquity to these women who are oft maligned today.

The narrative discusses ancient sources, including those that are so ancient that they are only known through references in other ancient sources and are otherwise lost to history. She also draws on ancient artistic depictions found in modern collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum. As the chapters progress, the narrative moves toward more contemporary interpretations, such as the Star Trek interpretation of the Helen myth, the Clash of the Titans interpretation of the Medusa myth, and the very recent Wonder Woman film interpretation of the Amazon myth. Even though the book is rife with academic footnotes on Ancient Greek and Roman sources, it is equally strewn with contemporary humor that made me chuckle out loud. Such as the revelation that the play we know as Oedipus Rex actually contains no dinosaurs, and the characterization of Ovid’s poetic retelling of the Agamemnon/Clytemnestra myth as a tale of a suburban couple whose swinging got out of control.

Despite its academic tenor, the book was extremely readable. I burned through the chapters during my reading time. The author did an amazing job of providing context, explanations, and definitions without my feeling like things were being dumbed down for the reader. In fact, even though I have a fairly good vocabulary, I still had to look up several undefined words, including “solipsistic,” “apotropaic,” “greaves,” “coruscating,” “bathetic,” “screed,” “haruspex,” “chthonic,” and “Wombles.”

Reading Pandora’s Jar has made me more eager to read A Thousand Ships (fiction) and Stone Blind (also fiction) by the same author. Additionally, it has made me more eager to read other fictional Greek myth retellings that are on my to be read list, including Elektra, Phaedra, Ithaca, Ariadne, and the Song of Achilles. Finally, I appreciate the background and perspective that these investigations provide into the characters of the Dark Olympus series, which is my super guilty pleasure reading. Oh, and this might be the nudge I need to read the Emily Wilson translation of Homer’s Odyssey that has been sitting on my bookshelf.

I received this book as a digital advance reader copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

I loved this! Although I’m a huge fan of retellings, I liked that Natalie Haynes really went back to the roots of each myth and showed us how things deviated over time. I love that she showed up how these women had power even before the reclaiming of their stories became popular. So informative!

Pandora’s Jar is a collection of myths about Greek women in mythology. It ranges from Pandora to Helen of Troy. This book gives a feminist perspective to each women. My personal favorites were Jocasta and Helen of Troy. Therefore, this is a book that you must picked up if you love Greek mythology. This is because it gives a fresh perspective of misunderstood women!

In this non-fiction collection of essays, Natalie Haynes examines ten mythological women, comparing their depictions in original texts and retellings over time. She reinvigorates the complexity and intrigue behind figures like Medusa and Madea, who have lost dimension in many iterations of their stories. Alternating between contemporary pop culture references and academic text analysis, Things With Jars will make you think twice about how your original understanding of these characters was shaped.

This conversational text is required reading for anyone who is a fan of the recent trend of feminist Greek mythology retellings. Haynes provides important historical context to many women’s stories in a way that appeals to modern sensibilities without being boring and pedantic. Her humor and voice is refreshing in what can sometimes be pretty horrific stories.

You ever want someone entertaining and relatable to just tell Greek mythology stories? Yeah. That’s this book.

I was a little surprised starting #PandorasJar by Natalie Haynes. I was expecting something akin to her first book — A Thousand Ships. This one is not a narrative, but rather a very delightful set of research essays on the women in Greek mythology — who are usually marginalized or vilified. Think: Medusa, Medea, Phaedra, Clytemnestra, and of course Pandora.

I learned a lot and switched to audiobook early on. It literally felt like my cool aunt who studied mythology in college was telling me stories. Each essay covered the history of the character and all the different variation of stories about her, then how modern culture adopted her tale.

These women were scorned, heartbroken, loving mothers, passionate — so much more than the male-driven stories gave them credit for. That is until now!

Really loved this as an audiobook — and I definitely recommend this one if you’ve loved the Greek retellings — like Circe and Song of Achilles. Just know this is way different of a book and maybe take each essay separately and not read back to back like I did 😂

Natalie Haynes has done it again! This read like an immaculate podcast series - you could hear Haynes’ whip-smart voice come through every essay! Each section focuses on the theme of a character, or multiple characters, diving into their complexity, evolution and reception over the centuries. Who knew that one could be as engrossed in a description of an ancient painting on a skyphos and what it means for our character versus their depiction in 2018’s Broadway hit Hadestown? (I mean, as a Music/Classics major, I did. But let’s ignore that for effect.)

Truly, if you have ever felt that the ancient Classics are inaccessible, and you’ve shied away from re-tellings in the way of Madeline Miller or Jennifer Saint - give Haynes a try! She’s like Weekend Update but for the Classics. She’ll make you laugh-out-loud and find your own truths in the antiquity - I promise! (Also, a HUGE plug here for experiencing the audiobooks of Haynes work - they are self-narrated and the most engaging!)

Wow ! WOW !

I have been a huge fan of Greek myths and retellings since I was in middle school but I was never able to see myself represented as the hero !

Pandora's Jar brings that vision to life. Although it is not truly a reimagining or retelling, I love the lovely feminist discussion and exploration of various women at the heart of these myths.

I missed this author's previous tile , "A Thousand Ships'" and Im excited to say that I will be picking it up and anything else Natalie Haynes decides to write.

In the last year or so I’ve been drawn to re-imaginings of Greek myths through new or neglected perspectives but it’s mostly made me more hesitant about tackling some of the original sources like The Odyssey or The Iliad. Well after reading Pandora’s Jar: Women in Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes, I’m more motivated than ever to actually take a stab at those classics I somehow managed to dodge during my high school, college and graduate literary studies. Though her novel A Thousand Ships helped spark an interest in doing so, it’s only in this extended analysis of how several familiar female figures from Greek myth have been transformed over the centuries that I feel truly inspired to go back to those earliest source materials myself. As Haynes points out, the women of Greek myth tended to be far more present (and complex) in the original forms than they may seem to have been given their representations in the last few centuries.

They’re names most of us are familiar with: Pandora, Helen, Medusa, Eurydice, the Amazons, Madea, Penelope and more. And most of us probably know elements of their stories but that might be all we know – elements. Especially in popular culture, so many of these women have been simplified and simplified over the centuries to the point where we only really remember singular aspects of their stories that have become conflated with their characters. For Helen, it’s her (literally) devastating beauty. For Medusa, it’s that she is a monster. Penelope waited, Clytemnestra plotted, and the Amazons fought. But that wasn’t always the case – in fact, for many of the women who appear in Greek mythology, they played larger and more nuanced roles in the story. Haynes deftly traces each of these women back to the oldest surviving sources of their stories and works to piece together how they originally appeared as well as where, how (and perhaps even why) they changed along the way to how they’re understood in modern pop culture.

I found Natalie Haynes’ writing style incredibly readable. The passion she has for her subject matter is obvious and she has a delightful and irreverent sense of humor but when the topic calls for it she demonstrates powerful nuance. Of all the women in her book, Phaedra was the one I knew the least about going in. Haynes’ honesty about how and why she almost left Phaedra out of the book entirely delved into just how much sexual assault there is in Greek mythology and how much of it has been sanitized over the centuries in an effort to make the myths appropriate for children (just look at what Disney did to Zeus in Hercules). It’s understandable in so many ways but Haynes follows the ripples of how sanitizing the myths that way impacts our understanding and appreciation for the figures in the myths as a result. If you tone down the actions themselves, the actors don’t appear so bad – the heroes get shinier. When you’re old enough to understand the euphemisms, you’re already attached to the image you had of the hero before so you’re more likely to reason away, excuse or ignore the inexcusable – it changes the way we see their victims (a point that Haynes also makes with her exploration of Medusa).

With each chapter focusing on one woman, I tried to pause and digest Haynes’ writing and insights but I was too compelled to just keep reading. Though she delved into the stories of ten female figures, I reached the end wanting so much more. Part of me really hopes that Haynes will follow up with another book along the same topic but focused more on the goddesses of Greek myth. They pop up in her discussions of these mostly-human figures but I’d love to read Haynes’ analysis of the role their divinity plays in the shifting portrayals of the goddesses through time (particular as they are translated and repackaged for a largely Christian audience). While I hope and pray for Haynes to write such a book, I’ll just have to content myself with reading more of her novels exploring the lives of many of the women she spent so much time studying and analyzing in Pandora’s Jar.

(ARC from NetGalley) For the girlies that had a Percy Jackson phase. Honestly, loved this. It was fascinating to see how these women’s stories were so warped over time to become villains and monsters, when in fact they were just women. Even the “evil” ones had more nuance than just doing bad things for the sake of doing bad things. Haynes also has a great sense of humor that makes this such an easy read for some heavier topics.