I absolutely love Natalie Haynes – her writing is excellent and her podcasts (‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics’) are both enlightening and witty. She can take some impossibly complex ideas and make them engaging, accessible and entertaining – this is exactly how I like my Classics and I just wish that my lecturers at university back in the mists of time had been half as funny when we looked at Homer!
This book focuses on a range of goddesses from Greek mythology, with each being given a chapter in which Haynes explores the source texts, discusses some of the anomalies in their presentation and perhaps why they have earned themselves a bad reputation or been overlooked. I found this particularly interesting in the case of Hera who is usually portrayed as Zeus’s shrewish, vindictive and much-cheated on wife. I also liked the closer look at Hestia – my favourite of the Olympians – and why she deserves to be celebrated in her own right against her more glamorous/lethal/crazy siblings.
Along the way, there’s lots of academic discussion and telling of the myths – some of which I knew, lots I didn’t. What I love is that Natalie Haynes approaches it all with humour and makes it interesting – it’s like having Classics explained to you by a lovely, funny but extremely knowledgeable friend. I should add that I also listened to the audiobook, read by Haynes herself, which added to this feeling – and made me giggle out loud a fair few times!
As with all Haynes’ books, I’d wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone with even a tiny curiosity about the Classics – she will both educate and entertain you. Even for those with a pretty sound understanding of mythology, there’s plenty to enjoy here.
Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy. Opinions are entirely my own.
Header photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash
