Monstrous Women: Reimagining the Female Monster in Greek Mythology by Elisabeth Brooke

A beautifully crafted book shedding new light on female monsters and goddesses from Greek mythology

Why does Greek mythology matter in the modern age? The Greek Gods and their accompanying mythology have coloured European and Western thought for millennia. Myths are never neutral; they are teaching tools. And Greek myth has a great deal to say about women. Although childbearing women ensured the survival of a culture, in the classical world women’s unbridled sexuality was seen as dangerous and subversive. Women represented a double bind: they were both totally necessary and a threat to civilization. Olympian male gods absorbed and appropriated the powers of older Goddesses and wrote the myths that claim them as their own. The common Medusa myth demonstrates how badly things go wrong when women misbehave. But there is another story…

Monstrous Women re-examines the ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know’ women of Greek mythology. It reconsiders the mythology of the Sirens and the Furies, who punished wicked and vain men; it explores the female undead who tormented the living; and investigates the great goddesses Hekate and Eris, who epitomised the destructive power of female rage and vengeance.

Monstrous Women is a refreshing and poignant exploration of Greek mythology, reframing these myths in light of new research, new translations of old texts, and current classical studies theories, in a clear and accessible way.