REVIEW: Pandora's Jar (Natalie Haynes)

Book: Pandora's Jar

Author: Natalie Haynes

Premise: Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and have routinely shown little interest in telling women’s stories. Now, Natalie Haynes redresses this imbalance.

I really enjoyed this book. Natalie Haynes has picked 10 women from Greek mythology and discusses how their stories have changed over time. It was interesting to see which bits of the stories were kept, discarded and added over time to get to the stories we know today. I hadn't appreciated how, even in ancient Greece, there were multiple variations of the same story. The book also discusses how art, music and relatively modern retellings have helped shape the myths to reflect societal values. A very interesting read and one I'd recommend if you like retellings of Greek myths.