Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths
Written and Narrated By: Natalie Haynes
Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
A really, really good Listen, but here’s the thing:
I must admit I have absolutely no idea what to do with Women-Centric Literature. It’s like this, see. When I was little, I decided to self-identify as Female to grow up to be… a Female. Woman? Are you crazy? Who wants to be a Woman? To grow into a possibly attractive young woman meant having to walk to your car, hyper-aware, keys laced through knuckles and ready to gouge out eyes if attacked. To become a woman in the workplace meant being paid less, receiving less respect, having to do stuff like make the coffee for meetings. Worst? To become a wife meant being completely and unutterably dominated by a husband, and I was mournfully told that when I got married, I’d do exactly what my husband told me to do. I mean, who wants to be a Woman if THAT’S what it’s all cracked up to be?! No no no! FEMALE! and even that kinda blew big time, ya know?
I say this cuz Pandora’s Jar was Big Sis’ pick for her Birthday Listen here in July and, as such, it’s a Listen that we both wound up discussing. And it’s a Listen that inspired in her many many and varied intense emotions. She wondered, looking back on the sheer yeeeeeeaars, CENTURIES, of the Mythology of these stories; looking back on the treatment of women?
Well, she looked really really reeeeally sad, really freaking exhausted that not much has changed for Women (I s’pose I thought: Gosh, it sucks to be a Woman… good thing I’m just a Female and don’t have a monkey in this circus…). So this audiobook seemed like it rained hammer blows upon her, and me? Mostly I just found it danged interesting, esPECially as the husband and I had just finished Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, which apPARently left a heckuva LOT out from the tales of these formidable women.
My absolute favorite was the chapter on Helen (of Troy fame) and of how that poor woman didn’t stand a chance. Further, I loved how author Natalie Haynes didn’t just give us a different, more authentically researched, view of Helen’s saga, but she went back farther in time to describe Theseus, heroic Theseus, and his kidnapping of scarcely a child Helen. See, Hamilton neglected to iterate THAT little tidbit on her chapter on Theseus! Also, how very very VERY refreshing to hear about the Trojan War from Helen’s perspective rather than via Hamilton’s focus on Achilles et al.
Pandora, Jocasta, Helen, (Poor!!!) Medusa, The Amazons, Clytemnestra, Phaedra, Medea, Penelope. These are the women Haynes does deep-end-dives into. Sure sure sure, some of them handled adversity better than others, you know, saaaay by, like, NOT killing their own children… But even (P’raps esPECially) the ones who did, you know, off their own children, come off as just the slightest bit, the wee-est amount, sympathetic. Yeh, perhaps being so betrayed by the men they loved and depended on had a couple of them in not the best frames of mind -BUT- at least in the hands of Haynes, each woman was fully-fleshed out, far more than what we as the public are aware of. Haynes, tho’ admitting it’s really not possible to say what The Definitive Truth of Character… or Story… is, she offers so much, so many versions, so many scripts of plays performed that showcase each woman in a different frame of light, that truly, one’s mind is blown. And tho’ she also lands upon how popular culture views each myth (Think that ridiculous movie from the 1980s, “Clash of the Titans”, for the modern understanding of Medusa), she makes it plain that each Iteration of the mythology of each woman is dependent upon the times for context. I LOVED how she went through how shocking the play for Medea must’ve been, what with children being murdered just offstage, and the Chorus actually considering interfering rather than just witnessing. What a veritable HOOT!!!
What makes this close to being a Fave is just how well Haynes manages some heavy-duty incidents such as rape and eternal damnation, and then she cuts in or ends with a clever quippy line. She is not only erudite but is hiLARious as well. One plods along, growing weary as daughters are sacrificed and husbands are murdered (Or are deserving of the ax… just sayin’…), and then Haynes offers a zinger that has one braying laughter. Odd, yes. But highly appreciated at the same time! Yeh, this most certainly benefits from having Haynes doing her own words, especially when those words are cleverly crafted gibes. So Ha Ha and there!
Just keep in mind, if you’re an anti-feminist TV personality, you will not like this, tho’ it is in no way “angry”. And if you’re a strong woman with a keen sense of right and wrong? You might find this enervating and disheartening in that It’s Been So; It Is Now; and P’raps It Ever Shall Be. -AND-?
If you’re a Female who’s shunned like the plague Womanhood, like, your entire life?
Well, you’ll find this a joyous little romp, full of clever witticisms. Yeh yeh yeh; it can be deplorable the way Heroes treat the women who give up everything to assist them on their Quests.
-but- it can also be pretty danged delightful cuz who DOESn’t like a little Vengeance Served Cold…?!
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