Pandora’s Jar author Natalie Haynes returns to discuss our misunderstandings of Greek Goddesses, exploring how media has portrayed them in the past and in the modern day.
Divine Might retells the well-known stories of the Muses, Hera, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, Hestia, Athene, and the Furies through the lens of a modern, female understanding of their actions and attitudes.
Haynes goes through the key stories with each of these Goddesses as the focus, and explains what the modern perception of them is – whether it’s negative, positive or if there have been widespread misunderstanding.
The stories are told with sources and modern examples to help readers who aren’t familiar with Greek mythology, like myself. There are references to The Hunger Games, Disney’s Hercules, and even Marvel’s Hawkeye.
Haynes defends the actions of the Goddesses portrayed as evil or manipulative, or have been misrepresented. She discusses what could be different today had there been a female reporter that was respected and her works were persevered, like Sappho. This doesn’t disqualify the tellings from Homer, Hesiod, or Pseudo-Apollodorus though, which are referenced throughout.
She opens up detailed discussions of the behaviours of the Goddesses and helps readers understand why and how they did the things they did. Haynes doesn’t portray the Goddesses as ‘perfect women’, because they are all individuals with their own strengths, ideas and commitments. They are not victims or weaker than their male counterpart either, Demeter, Hera and Athene are some of the most powerful and influential amongst the Gods, and Haynes reminds us of this.
I finished this book knowing far much more than I had when I started and it even encouraged me to do more research about the Greek Goddesses.
Haynes combines elegance and wit to explore these conversations of Greek mythology and story with us, and does so with a familiarity and warmth. She encourages readership and further education, and prompts thought of the women around you and yourself. The Goddesses are worthy and deserving of worship and remembrance, and represent vast emotions and actions that many women may understand or even relate to. The Goddesses aren’t perfect, neither are you, and that’s okay.
Feature Image Credit: Petra Borer
News Editor.
Current fourth year Journalism Studies and Politics student.
