Pandora’s Jar is a delightful collection of essays about women in ancient Greek myth, by feminist classicist Natalie Hayes. She examines the myths from multiple sources, including images from Greek art and architecture. All of the essays were interesting, but two stood out for me: “The Amazons” and “Medea.” I’ve explored Amazon lore as background for my novel-in-progress, Sky God’s Warrior. Pandora’s Jar offered fresh insights, the most fascinating being the contradictory values of the Greek and Amazon warriors. The author says, “the heroic mindset for the Greeks who fought at Troy is intrinsically selfish and self-absorbed. . . . Unlike these men, Amazons fight alongside one another. …It is the Amazons’ intensely tribal nature which helps keep them alive in battle.” |
I was also inspired by the essay on Medea, whom I hope to feature in a future novel, Fire God’s Daughter. Medea was a villain in several Greek plays. The author says, “...there were few things more alarming to ancient Greek men than the machinations of a clever woman, and Medea is the cleverest of them all.”
In Euripides’ play Medea, she is bereft because her husband Jason is leaving her for another woman, the princess of Corinth. Medea and her sons are being sent into exile. Abandoned in a foreign country and with no immediate family, Medea plots her revenge. “Jason isn’t stupid at all, he’s just not in the same league as Medea. . . . He doesn’t want to be the bad guy in the marriage, even though he is willing to see his wife and sons go into exile. And Medea knows that. The easiest person to fool is the one who wants to be fooled.” The author says: “[Medea] is a complex character with multiple internal forces pulling her in different directions, but that is why she seems so real, so human. . . . she is a woman in crisis, lashing out at those who have hurt her.” |
Medea decides to kill their children. The author notes that this impulse to “weaponize” children in a divorce is all too common. Also, Medea reasons that she “will not allow my sons to be mistreated by my enemies.” This impulse is similar to that of the character Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects, who “became his most terrifying form when he decided to kill his family rather than allow himself to be threatened with their loss in The Usual Suspects.” The author notes that killing her children doesn’t break Medea, but makes “her more powerful than ever.”
Pandora’s Jar is a great resource for anyone interested in Greek mythology, feminism, or stories of powerful women.
Pandora’s Jar is a great resource for anyone interested in Greek mythology, feminism, or stories of powerful women.