My Book Review > "Pandora's Jar", by Natalie Haynes

“Pandora’s Jar” is a much needed and beautiful book which tries to restore the role and image of women in ancient Greek mythology.

“Some women have been painted as villains (Clytemnestra, Medea), some as victims (Eurydice, Penelope), some have been literally monstered (Medusa). But they are much more complicated than these thumbnail descriptions allow”! They were hidden behind male characters and oversimplified.

“Pandora is the first woman; thanks to her (according to Hesiod), the carefree age of men comes to an end. But what would be an all-male age with no women ( and no fire)?” Actually, “Pandora is an agent of change. She is not an unmitigated evil as her box-opening reputation might have you believe. She is dual: Kalon-Kakon, beautiful and ugly, good and evil”

“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 “

FIVE STAR!!!