Ancient Myths and Legends Without Men: Reclaiming the Stories of Mythology’s Most Iconic Women, Goddesses, and Female Monsters

Gold, a PhD candidate in classics at the University of Oxford, debuts with a breezy overview of the women of ancient mythology. Understanding historic portrayals of womanhood, she argues, enables people to reclaim these stories to “empower women today.” Organizing the characters into seven archetypes—Homemaker, Virgin, Warrior, Femme Fatale, Witch, Madwoman, and Monster—she explores how their meaning has shifted over time, with those more antithetical to previous standards of womanhood often praised as heroic by contemporary feminists. For example, Medusa, the snake-haired monster who could turn men into stone with her stare, was once the embodiment of “an imagined threat to male domination,” but has become a feminist icon and the “ultimate subversion of the male gaze,” Gold says. The sorceress Circe has often been viewed as a spiteful, scorned woman, but modern interpretations, including Madeline Miller’s 2018 novel, Circe, depict her as a complex character with needs and desires that have gone unmet. On the other hand, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and crafts, has been a feminist figure for centuries, but in ancient myths, Gold explains, she punished women who didn’t conform to standards of femininity. Nuanced and enlightening, this succinctly relays the origin stories of contemporary empowerment symbols. Ancient mythology buffs and feminists will find much of interest. Illus. (May)