I have just finished reading Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes which explores the treatment of women in Greek mythology and brings their side of the story to the fore. Women were second class citizens in Ancient Greece, ahead of the slaves but a long way behind the men. The Myths were even worse. Women were kidnapped, raped and abandoned by gods and heroes alike. They often died a horrible death.So I was ready for a heavy dose of misogyny when I opened the book and Haynes does not hold back.

She also has surprises in store. This is not just a catalogue of victimhood, but also of resistance and revenge. Unlike Haynes, not many of us can read these stories in their many Greek versions or their Latin retellings. And there were many retellings in the 800 years that separated Homer’s epic poetry from that of Virgil.

Most of us learned these myths in translation, sometime bowdlerised versions for children in which women were seduced or fell in love, but were never raped, or from more scholarly translations that began to appear from the Renaissance onwards.

The neo-classical revival of the 18th century led to fresh translations. These were usually upper class men who learned Greek and Latin at public school and then continued their studies at the great universities. It is no surprise that they approved of Athenian democracy and saw parallels with their own Houses of Parliament (in both systems women did not have the vote). And they found parallels between the Greeks’ battles with “barbarians” and the “civilising mission” of the British Empire. As a consequence many of the nuances of classical culture were lost as the stories became fixed in the national consciousness.

The long struggle of women, both for the vote and for the right to study and graduate on equal terms with men was only won in the twentieth century. Some were drawn to the classics and noticed how, for all their misogyny, women got a better deal in the originals than they did in the modern retellings. Haynes is one of a number of writers, mostly women, who are producing new translations or are reimagining these stories, placing women centre stage and giving voice to their perspective.

And not before time. The one-sided versions of the myths have pervaded not just our schools and colleges but also the entire range of popular culture. I will leave it to the reader to discover the delight for themselves of how the myth of Pandora’s Box has informed our culture from 50s noir to Pulp Fiction; Twilight Zone to Star Trek; and unites Donna Summers and Aerosmith!

The book starts with Pandora and *Spoiler Alert* guess what?

There is no box!

Erasmus mistranslated the Greek word for jar, ‘pithos’ as box. He may have confused it with ‘puxos’ which does mean box. Greek vases were narrow at the bases, unstable and easily broken. As Haynes points out, not the most secure vessels for holding all the troubles of the world. But the image of Pandora deliberately opening a box and unleashing those troubles on the world is the image that has survived.

There are other images. For those of us who are somewhat handicapped when it comes to close textual analysis of Ancient Greek Haynes provides detailed descriptions of the way the women in these myths have been depicted from Greek pottery to modern painters. If I have a criticism it is that some of these descriptions are, of necessity, too detailed because there are very few actual illustrations in this book. Each chapter does open with a black and white illustration but if this was down to cost it is was a false economy. I note that Stephen Fry’s trilogy: Mythos, Heroes and Troy have lavish colour illustrations. Fry is an entertaining writer. But he lacks the depth of knowledge and the insight that Haynes brings to the subject. I think she deserves better, like most of the women in her book!

So here are the rest of the illustrations that Haynes discusses in the chapter on Pandora. One small compensation for our current lockdown is that galleries and museums have opened up online virtual tours and made many of their exhibits available online.

The first one is interesting because it has an urn instead of a box and its title points to the parallels between Pandora and Eve, two women who are blamed for bringing evil into the world of men. Though Milton, in Paradise Lost, sticks up for Eve as being more beautiful than Pandora,even if she is equally blameworthy for the sins of the world.

More lovely then Pandora, whom the Gods
Endowd with all thir gifts, and O too like
In sad event, when to the unwiser Son
Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she ensnar’d
Mankind with her faire looks, to be aveng’d
On him who had stole Joves authentic fire.

Three hundred years later we have another jar, or rather a vase and it looks as if her husband, Epithemus, not Pandora has opened it. It was her gift to him, or rather the gift Zeus gave her to deliver to him.

Pandora was given many gifts by the gods before she was sent to earth. She was specifically created by the gods because Prometheus had tricked the gods and stolen Zeus’s fire and given it to men. Remember Milton’s words. Jove is the Latin form of Zeus.

to be aveng’d
On him who had stole Joves authentic fire.

But who wanted vengeance? Certainly not Pandora. She had only just been born, hammered from the earth. She was deliberately created as the instrument of Zeus’ revenge.

And all the gods line up to give her gifts. Hermes, the winged messenger of the Gods who is to deliver her to earth places deception in her heart and lies in her mouth.

Other gods dress her in pretty clothes and give her garlands before Zeus gives her his gift, his vengeance on the mortal race of men. In modern times we could compare her to a young girl being groomed by terrorists. Yet, somehow all the blame has been laid at her door. Pandora, she never stood a chance!

So that is Chapter 1. And nine equally cracking chapters to follow. I recommend Pandora’s Jar. I bought it as a gift for a friend then had to buy another for myself. I first came across Natalie Haynes on the radio. She had a comedy show called Stand Up for the Classics. Then I heard her speak at the Words by the Water Festival at Keswick where I bought her novel of Troy “A Thousand Ships.” That was barely a year ago. The last public gathering I attended before the first Covid lockdown. I end with this video of Natalie Haynes introducing Pandora’s Jar.