Natalie Haynes

Natalie Haynes, author of the bestselling Pandora’s Jar, returns to the world of Greek myth and this time she examines the role of the goddesses. We meet Athene, who sprang fully formed from her father’s head: goddess of war and wisdom, guardian of Athens. We run with Artemis, goddess of hunting and protector of young girls (apart from those she decides she wants as a sacrifice). Here is Aphrodite, goddess of sex and desire – there is no deity more determined and able to make you miserable if you annoy her. And then there’s the queen of all the Olympian gods: Hera, Zeus’s long-suffering wife, whose jealousy of his dalliances with mortals, nymphs and goddesses lead her to wreak elaborate, vicious revenge on those who have wronged her. We also meet Demeter, goddess of agriculture and mother of the kidnapped Persephone, we sing the immortal song of the Muses and we warm ourselves with Hestia, goddess of the hearth and sacrificial fire. The Furies carry flames of another kind – black fires of vengeance for those who incur their wrath. These goddesses are as mighty, revered and destructive as their male counterparts. Isn’t it time we looked beyond the columns of a ruined temple to the awesome power within?

Goddesses in Greek Myth

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Lauren

 Just because a lot of people died young doesn't mean anyone wanted to.

But while Xenophanes doesn't stray into such inflammatory agnosticism - he doesn't question the existence of gods he does still observe that the way we depict or perceive gods might reflect our own appearances and values more than the god we claim to define. 

These Muses always remind me that scientists and artists should disregard the idiotic attempts to separate us. We are all nerds, in the end.

Great poets must be male, because there they all are, proving it. The great female poet can be disregarded because she is basically inhuman, a goddess, and so doesn't count. 

We like to be able to separate heroes, villains and victims. It's convenient for a simple narrative, but it isn't always reflective of the truth. 

If he loved her. he would want her to be happy, even if it meant losing her. Wanting to own someone isn't love, it's just possession.

Zeus and Hades obviously never consider what Persephone might want, but they also disregard Demeter in their plot, even though she is their sister. They simply decide between themselves that Hades should have whatever he wants and assume that Persephone will get used it, since she can't escape it. And yet Demeter - mother of this young woman and therefore firmly occupying the space where women become invisible to the eyes of predatory men - doesn't accept anything. She weaponizes her rage, flexes her tremendous power and forces them to do what they should have done all along: consider Persephone's feelings and consider her own.

 It's a duality that we often see when someone describes something as 'women's work’. They never seem to mean 'work that can only be done by women because of the skills they possess'. They tend to mean something arduous and boring that they wouldn't choose to do, decorated with a patina of gender stereotypes. 

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