[Erysichthon, cursed by Demeter] eats the racehorses, a warhorse and an ailouros – the animal they keep for catching vermin. This word was usually translated as ‘cat’ when I was a student, but some archaeozoologists now think domestic cats were quite late arrivals in Greece, so an ailouros might actually be a weasel or a pine marten. Whatever it is, Erysichthon eats it. [loc. 2795]
Haynes offers a witty, feminist account of six Olympian goddesses -- Aphrodite, Athene, Artemis, Demeter, Hera and Hestia -- bracketed by chapters on the Muses and the Furies. Her text is peppered with pop culture references (Katniss and Kate 'Hawkeye' Bishop, Lizzo and Cardi B, Lady Gaga and Arnold Schwarznegger, Jessica Jones and Barbie) as well as references to the myths in their various forms, and to artworks based on those myths. (I'd have liked more illustrations of the latter, but then again Kindle is not a great medium through which to view images, and the internet was at hand...)
Haynes reclaims Hera, who's typically depicted as foul-tempered, rageful and unreasonable, as the champion of married women -- and, implicitly, of a type of civilised order to which the 'petty, aggressive and routinely obnoxious' male gods are oblivious. She shows us the power of Demeter's rage and grief when Persephone is abducted by Hades; the destructive, sacrifice-demanding side of Artemis, and the great antiquity of her myth; the underappreciated Hestia, 'a goddess who doesn’t often do, but always is... our warm homecoming, our baked bread, our light in the dark' [2983]. She writes about how the Sirens were turned into magpies by the Muses (a myth I hadn't encountered before) and about the ways in which the Greeks identified and understood psychological states -- such as PTSD -- by thinking of them as curses dealt by particular deities.
Haynes is often slyly hilarious, for instance her remark that 'I too have been perplexed by Zeus’ habit of converting himself into a bird for the purposes of impressing or beguiling women'. I appreciate her humour a great deal and think it will appeal to the demographic that's perhaps her target audience: young women without much experience of Greek mythology. Her style is informal, her breadth of knowledge impressive and her observations highly relevant to the modern world. I've read and admired Haynes' novel Stone Blind, which retells the story of Medusa and her sisters: I think her non-fiction writing is equally accomplished.
of all the goddesses in this book, the Furies – not in their role of vengeance-goddesses but in the sense of collective, societal shame that they also personify, shame at breaking your word or behaving cruelly and dishonestly – might be the ones I would most like to see restored to a modern pantheon. [loc. 4040]
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