Troie vit ses derniers jours. Alors que la cité est la proie des flammes, une voix s'élève pour chanter l'histoire des femmes. Celle des Troyennes, telles Andromaque, Hélène et Cassandre, dont le sort repose désormais entre les mains de leurs ennemis. Celle des Grecques, comme Pénélope, condamnée à attendre le retour d'Ulysse, ou Iphigénie, sacrifiée par son père pour des vents favorables. Celle des déesses Héra, Athéna et Aphrodite, dont la vanité a plongé le monde dans le chaos. Mais aussi celle des femmes oubliées, reléguées dans l'ombre par les anciennes légendes : Créuse, OEnone, l'Amazone Penthésilée et bien d'autres. Dans ce roman choral épique et flamboyant, Natalie Haynes déroule un nouveau fil de l'histoire de Troie pour en célébrer les héroïnes.
" Brillant, passionné, implacable. "
Margaret Atwood, autrice de La Servante écarlate
Certains monstres sont tout simplement de jeunes filles qui n'ont pas eu de chance. C'est le cas de Méduse. Violée par Poséidon, injustement punie par Athéna, c'est par la faute des dieux qu'elle fut changée en créature hideuse, aux cheveux de serpents et au regard pétrifiant.
Mais que sait-on de son coeur, sinon le récit qu'en a rapporté Persée, le héros qui l'a décapitée pour assouvir sa soif de gloire ?
Et si le monstre n'était finalement pas celui que l'Histoire retient ?
In Divine Might 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?
Shortlisted for the Women''s Prize for Fiction In A Thousand Ships , broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker. This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . . In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women embroiled in the legendary war. Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the centre of the story. ''With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War'' - Madeline Miller, author of Circe ''A gripping feminist masterpiece'' - Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist
''Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!'' - Margaret Atwood The Greek myths are among the world''s most important cultural building blocks and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories. Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and have routinely shown little interest in telling women''s stories. And when they do, those women are often painted as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil. But Pandora - the first woman, who according to legend unloosed chaos upon the world - was not a villain, and even Medea and Phaedra have more nuanced stories than generations of retellings might indicate. Now, in Pandora''s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths , Natalie Haynes - broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist - redresses this imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point, she puts the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk. After millennia of stories telling of gods and men, be they Zeus or Agamemnon, Paris or Odysseus, Oedipus or Jason, the voices that sing from these pages are those of Hera, Athena and Artemis, and of Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Eurydice and Penelope.
From the Women''s Prize shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships comes a retelling of Oedipus and Antigone from the perspectives of the women the myths overlooked.
My siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . .
Jocasta is just fifteen when she is told that she must marry the King of Thebes, an old man she has never met. Her life has never been her own, and nor will it be, unless she outlives her strange, absent husband.
Ismene is the same age when she is attacked in the palace she calls home. Since the day of her parents'' tragic deaths a decade earlier, she has always longed to feel safe with the family she still has. But with a single act of violence, all that is about to change.
With the turn of these two events, a tragedy is set in motion. But not as you know it.
1000-PIECE PUZZLE featuring the women of Greek mythology as you've never seen them before. Finished puzzle measures 680 x 485mm.
SPOT FAMOUS FIGURES AND MYTHICAL MOMENTS, as you build the puzzle - can you find Pandora and her jar, or Medusa with snakes for hair?
INCLUDES A FOLD-OUT POSTER featuring the stories of the real women of Greek myth from best-selling author and classicist Natalie Haynes.
STURDY & ATTRACTIVE BOX perfect for gifting and storage.
Think you know these women? Put the pieces together and you will start to think again.
In this beautifully illustrated 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, rediscover the lives and stories of the women of Greek myth, portrayed by author, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes with illustrator Natalie Foss.
A large fold-out poster of the artwork accompanies the jigsaw and also includes an original essay from the author, expanding on the stories, relationships and context surrounding these infamous women.
Featuring mortals and goddesses alike, from Medusa and Medea to Helen, Euridice, Aphrodite, Phaedra, Artemis and more, uncover the truth about the women of the classics.
In Divine Might 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?
A dark psychological page-turner about an inexperienced teacher who builds a powerful - and ultimately dangerous - connection with her students. We Need to Talk about Kevin meets Notes on a Scandal.
It's time for us to re-examine the past. Our lives are infinitely richer if we take the time to look at what the Greeks and Romans have given us in politics and law, religion and philosophy and education, and to learn how people really lived in Athens, Rome, Sparta and Alexandria. This is a book with a serious point to make but the author isn't simply a classicist but a comedian and broadcaster who has made television and radio documentaries about humour, education and Dorothy Parker. This is a book for us all. Whether political, cultural or social, there are endless parallels between the ancient and modern worlds. Whether it's the murder of Caesar or the political assassination of Thatcher; the narrative arc of the hit HBO series The Wire or that of Oedipus; the popular enthusiasm for the Emperor Titus or President Obama - over and over again we can be seen to be living very much like people did 2,000 or more years ago.
