Greek Myths: A New Retelling, with drawings by Chris Ofili

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Penelope weaves a design ‘as intricate as her own involved, withheld mind’ … Detail from Penelope and the Suitors by John William Waterhouse.

Women do all the work for 9 months, then risk dying in birth, yet guys get all the credit for 10 seconds of "work" while in bliss. And if you really want to explore that genre but you want it tied to modern day examples of bomb ass women embodying ancient myths and you still want it to be feisty and fun, I’M DEAD INSIDE THIS IS STILL NOT THE BOOK. In Charlotte Higgins's thrilling new interpretation of these ancient stories, their tales combine to form a dazzling, sweeping epic of storytelling. This is supposed to be a ~feminist retelling~ but that is only true because 1) each chapter title is the name of a woman and 2) the author is literally just TELLING you the same Greek stories over again.Potters designing intricate stick people, chariots and funeral biers on geometric pottery produced at the time of the early bards copied their grid-templates from women’s weaving patterns. A lot of the women were raped, which was to be expected in a book about Greek mythology; however, I think a lot of substance was missing from those aspects. It felt like the author was in a rush while writing them, and the reader doesn’t have much opportunity to fully embrace the characters and their stories, which should be the whole point of the book. Clearly, we do, because we might think we know these tales so well, but Ms Higgins completely turns them on their head and recounts them from the women’s point of view. Higgins does a great job of following Greek myths through many of its famous women, but they are all linked by the loom and their weave depicting some of the terrible things the gods and goddesses have done.

Depending on how you read this collection, it's either a great introduction to greek mythology for greek myth novices or perhaps not the best first glance into the topic. Clair (and if you don’t like smex try Alexandra Braken or if you’re literally a child try Mary Pope Osborn). There are stories of love and desire, adventure and magic, destructive gods, helpless humans, fantastical creatures, resourceful witches and the origins of birds and animals. I was dying for a greek mythology hit and this hit the spot perfectly so I can not complain too much.She has served as a judge for the Art Fund museums prize, the Contemporary Art Society award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society awards. And in these stories, we do not see heroes and gods but patriarchs, rapists, cheats, braggarts and betrayers. I don’t know where this book is supposed to fit in amongst all these other great authors turning out amazing interesting hilarious novels and books.

She is an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and is on the board of the Henry Barber Trust. Penelope of course ends the book and we get to see her jealousy and exhaustion dealing with Odysseus being gone and having to deal with the suitors who would marry her. Weaving was a metaphor at the heart of ancient metaphysics, since the Fates measure out and cut off the threads of human life itself. In this powerful new collection, Charlotte Higgins foregrounds Greek mythology’s most enduring heroines.

There is no shortage these days of lively, well-written retellings of ancient Greek and Roman myths, but Charlotte Higgins has embraced a central metaphor – weaving – that leads us through the labyrinth of interconnected stories in a startlingly fresh way. A the death of their king and his daughter the Corinthians started rioting; they were a mob, terrifying in their cries for vengeance. As cleverly as her protagonists (Athena, Alcithoë, Arachne, Andromache, Helen, Circe and Penelope) weave their tapestries, so she threads her stories. Its thoughtful introduction, ample notes pointing to the ancient sources, bibliography of accessible further reading, maps, genealogies and glossary make it a useful resource for far more advanced adult readers.