Mythica: A New History of Homer's World, Through the Women Written Out of It

by Emily Hauser, Unknown Author

Award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends, and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . . .


Contrary to perceptions built up over three millennia, ancient history is not all about men – and it's not only men's stories that deserve to be told.

In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women – queens, mothers, warriors, slaves – were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them.

A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women – from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope – Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.


'Bold and intellectually thrilling . . . blending history and science, rigorous scholarship and dazzling feats of imagination.' TOM HOLLAND, historian and co-host of 'The Rest is History' podcast

'Absolutely blew me away . . . rich, evocative and original work . . . this book is quite wonderful.' ELODIE HARPER, author of The Wolf Den

'Offers a dazzling new way of thinking about the ancient world . . . a wonderful, beautifully written and important book.' DAN JONES, author of Henry V

'A book the world has been waiting for . . . I loved it.'
BETTANY HUGHES, author of The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World


Born in Brighton and brought up in Suffolk, EMILY HAUSER studied Classics at Cambridge, where she was taught by Mary Beard. She completed a PhD at Yale University, was a Junior Fellow at Harvard University and is now Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at Exeter University. For the Most Beautiful - the first book in the Golden Apple trilogy - was her debut novel and retells the story of the siege of Troy. Her second, For the Winner, is a reimagining of the myth of Atalanta and the legend of Jason, the Argonauts and the search for the Golden Fleece. The final book - For the Immortal - brings to brilliant life the story of the legendary Amazons and their queen, Hippolyta, and one of the ancient world's most celebrated heroes, Hercules.

Award-winning classicist, ancient historian and author Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey through the latest archaeological discoveries and DNA secrets of the Aegean Bronze Age, as she uncovers the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

THE INSTANT TIMES BESTSELLER

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Mythology, Greek Mythology, Feminism, Greece, Ancient History

496 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2025

About the author

Emily Hauser is an award-winning ancient historian and the author of the acclaimed Golden Apple trilogy retelling the stories of the women of Greek myth. She has been featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and The Guardian alongside Colm Tóibín and Natalie Haynes, and her novel For the Winner was listed among the "28 Best Books for Summer" in The Telegraph. Her latest book, Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, through the Women Written Out Of It, was an instant Times bestseller.

To find out more, visit her website: http://www.emilyhauser.com

Reviews

[Angharad · Rating 5 out of 5]

We need to get this out of the way first and foremost: what this book is. And what it is not.

It is NOT a retelling of The Iliad, The Odyssey, or any other Greek myth. It is NOT a work of fiction.

This book is an unflinchingly honest, real look at some historical, scientific, archaeological, and mythological canon information about some of the the key female characters within Homer, such as Helen, Aphrodite, Penelope, Athena, Circe, and Andromache along with others. This is not a "girl boss" examination of their character, making them superheroes or modern culture of 2025 appropriate figures. This book looks at the women in the context of the world and time in which they lived. And it was an ugly, brutal, harsh world indeed for women, and especially non-Greek women during the Trojan Wars.

The Aphrodite and Hera chapter in particular was incredible to me, but honorable mentions to the Thetis, Bryseis, and Circe chapters for being especially impactful to me as a lover of Greek myth, religion, and history. I've been thinking about some of the the DNA evidence factoids within the book for days now, and I suspect that they will continue to haunt me for weeks. The text is beautifully written and when it's fully published should have some detailed maps and art. I can't wait to see those diagrams!

This is a MUST BUY for anyone who wants more historical context around the Iliad and the Odyssey. Even though this book is focused around the women, it grants a lot of insight into the characters of Achilles, Odysseus, Hektor, Paris, and Telemachus to name a few.

I will absolutely be buying this when it releases later this year and telling all my Hellenic polytheist/Greek pagan friends and history lovers to pick this book up!

Thank you so very much to Emily Hauser, the publisher, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Christy fictional_traits · Rating 5 out of 5]

'In this book, it's the women who are going to take us on a journey through the Iliad and the Odyssey and across the splendid tumultuous world of the late Bronze Age'.

If you love Greek Classics, mythology, or ancient history, but more importantly, women's history, then you're sure to devour this book. Using some of the key women portrayed in the two, iconic classic tales, the Iliad and the Odyssey, as a starting point, Emily Hauser re-focuses our lens to examine the real women behind characters. She hasn't just used her academic knowledge or desktop research to piece together hypotheses but has augmented written words with the latest in DNA testing and modern archaeological scholarship to present a well-rounded notion of just who these women might have been. It's the mothers, the warriors, the slaves, and the queens. It's all women from the late Bronze Age that are touched upon. Through her book, she brings a more balanced view to the very masculine world, of that age, that has always previously been presented.

You'll need to take your time with this book as it is packed with information and substantiation; each chapter feels like its own story. Once you've completed it though, you will come out with a very different view of the types of women, their roles, their lives, their regard, than you had previously.

'There's always more to find. And that's worth waiting for'.

[Carl (Hiatus. IBB in Jan) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mythica by Emily Hauser is a well-researched reexamination of Homer’s mythological women from the late Bronze Age who have long stood under the shadows of Greek heroes, viewed through a feminist lens (or perhaps, more accurately, a non-misogynistic perspective). Through the blending of scientific research, literary references, archaeological findings, and anthropology, Hauser's inquisitive work suggests new connections and hypotheses about the “support” women of Greek mythology, returning their voices, lives, and history, and gifting the reader with astounding recent findings (as recent as 2023). In this intriguing book, she evokes Hittite and Greek queens, warriors, mothers, slaves, and goddesses whose stories were warped and fitted into male-centric narratives.

The narrative has an excellent balance between accessibility and academic rigor, making the complex subjects of genetics, archaeology, historical context, and literary critique engaging to a broad audience. Mythica is an outstanding book that reads like a documentary. Famous figures like Penthesilea, Circe, Penelope, Cassandra, and many other ancient women who were repeatedly brutalised by Homer’s great male heroes are now interestingly reframed. Hauser does an excellent job in stripping the text from the most technical language without hindering the narrative, and consistently enticing the reader with new insights referring to the history behind mythology. In her notes, she mentions using quotations from Emily Wilson's translation (the first woman to translate the Iliad and the Odyssey from the source material), alongside her own translations (she notes studying ancient Greek for over twenty years). This approach is important to avoid repeating the same analysis carried out previously. Her exploration of archaeology and modern technologies, such as ancient DNA evidence and digital facial reconstructions (shout-out to the University of Manchester!) is clear and accessible. It is fascinating what she managed to achieve in this book.

Modern tools like archaeology, literary critique, and DNA analysis can help uncover the truths about these women’s lives, offering us a more comprehensive and realistic view of these late Bronze Age women. The focus on characters like Briseis and Chryseis illustrates the harrowing reality of how these women’s stories have been sidelined, their pain and strength minimized, and used as devices to serve a hero’s purpose. Hauser articulates a reimagining of these women not as mythical figures but as real individuals with experiences that reflect the complexities of ancient Greek and Hittite societies; inviting the reader to reconsider the pre-conception of stories we’ve inherited and rethink them as complex, nuanced, and multifaceted stories.

Mythica is a necessary book for anyone interested in Greek mythology, history, and a non-misogynistic analysis of the Homeric women. Hauser’s well-researched, fascinating and thought-provoking work challenges ingrained perceptions and re-signifies the experiences of the women who shaped the myths that have persisted for millennia.

Rating: 4.5/5
Highly Recommended

Thank you, Emily Hauser and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers | Doubleday, for this digital galley via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and personal opinion.

[Seolhe]

DNF'd at 13%

I have some serious issues with this book, so this is gonna be a little on the long side.

I was initially excited about this book, but the marketing slowly made me more and more wary, and the introduction alone confirmed a lot of my worries. I decided to read, at the very least, the first chapter to see if things got better, but when they didn't, and I just found myself more and more bothered, I decided it was time for me to give up.

My main problems based on the introduction and the first chapter on Helen of Troy can be boiled down to the following points:

- This book really capitalizes on the recent trend of feminist myth retellings, right down to repeatedly insisting that the women of Greek myth have always been silenced and forgotten in a way that is just plain untrue. It feels especially disingenuous to insist that these ancient texts didn't give a voice to women, only to then pull all of your information about these women from said ancient texts.
It's like she's over here saying: "Homer didn't give these female characters a voice. They only exist in the shadows, their stories buried and forgotten. Anyways! Here's this rich and nuanced portrayal of Helen's character as found in the Iliad and the Odyssey!"

- This one might seem like a minor complaint, but I think it highlights a lot of problems with the author's approach.
When talking about what a real Helen might have actually looked like, she talks about various examples of Mycenaean and Minoan art that showcase women with pale, white skin. She uses these examples to imagine what Helen may have looked like if she actually existed.
What she fails to mention is that this is a well-known artistic convention, not necessarily a reflection of what people at the time actually looked like. Women in Mycenaean art, along with several other cultures in this geographical area like the Minoans and the Egyptians, were usually portrayed with paler skin, while men were portrayed with darker skin. This is an important distinction to make, and the fact that the author doesn't even acknowledge this makes me inherently trust her less.

- There's also the fact that she's responsible for the recent yassified, baby-faced AI "reconstruction" of a Mycenaean woman mentioned in the book, which further cements my lack of trust in her scientific integrity.
For context, the woman in this AI portrait has pale skin, blue eyes and ginger hair in a noticeably un-Mycenaean style. Her skin is smooth and flawless, and she looks more like a teenager than the 30-something year old woman she was at the time of her death.
The problem with the AI recreation (aside from the ethical concerns about generative AI in general) is that there's no sound science behind it.
The "artist" (who is not a scientist or an expert in facial recreations) ran a previous clay reconstruction through an AI program while adding skin-, eye- and hair colour based not on DNA or any other scientific evidence, but rather on vague "textual evidence" and the aforementioned Mycenaean and Minoan frescoes. The author specifically highlights a single, rare example of a Minoan fresco featuring a woman with red hair and blue eyes rather than the black hair and dark eyes that are the standard, which is especially suspicious in relation to this recreation.
Honestly, it just feels like the author projected her idea of Helen, whom she acknowledges is a fictional character, onto this real woman, which I find incredibly icky.
You can read more about the problems with this recreation here

- Finally, I just hated the narrative voice.
I know this is a lot more subjective than the previous points and your mileage may vary, but I just found the tone of the writing really obnoxious.

[Katya]

Para os gregos clássicos, os épicos de Homero eram - de um modo bastante literal - a sua «bíblia» (em grego antigo, «biblos» significa «livro»). Os generais iam buscar conselhos militares às suas páginas (é sabido que Alexandre, o Grande dormia com um exemplar da Ilíada debaixo da almofada). Filósofos como Platão e Sócrates recorriam a Homero para compreenderem toda a sorte de coisas, da história da guerra ao sentido da coragem. E ao longo dos séculos, escritores homens, do solene poeta romano Virgílio, a soldados como o poeta inglês Rupert Brooke, que andou atolado nas trincheiras da Primeira Guerra Mundial, redefiniram grandes figuras, como Aquiles, para que através delas refletissem a sua imagem e os seus feitos; além disso, alunos rapazes de escolas públicas britânicas eram obrigados a copiar passagens apropriadamente masculinas dos livros de Homero, na esperança de poderem tornar-se cavalheiros como deve de ser.

Porque é que trabalhos como este, de Emily Hauser, são importantes fora do meio académico? O que justifica a publicação de investigações em áreas de nicho como os Estudos Clássicos e o tema do género?
Fora do muito óbvio escopo do "saber é poder", em que a transmissão desse saber advém, efetivamente, de figuras com conhecimento legítimo e se dirige, de forma democrática, a todos e não só a uma mão cheia de privilegiados, há aqui a questão do peso cultural de uma investigação como a que origina o livro Mythica.
Partindo da desmontagem da intricada rede de referências literárias homéricas, Hauser centra a sua investigação na busca de precedentes históricos (devidamente comprovados pela ciência moderna) para os protótipos femininos encontrados na épica.
E o resultado é estrondoso.
Respeitando a ordem narrativa, a autora inicia o seu trabalho com a análise da Ilíada e termina com a análise Odisseia, percorrendo, no decurso de várias centenas de páginas, um vasto conjunto de personagens-arquétipo essenciais ao desenrolar da ação para demonstrar que, na sua génese, se encontram figuras femininas que a cultura falocêntrica se esforçou por ocultar pela força de códigos de silêncio e da submissão de género.
A sua investigação mostra-nos que, sob os nomes tão famosos de Briseida e Criseida, Cassandra ou Pentesileia, Atena, Penélope ou Euricleia se encontra um compósito de figuras femininas reais, muitas vezes anónimas, que alimentaram não só a narrativa épica de Homero como também a narrativa histórica da Era do Bronze no Egeu.

A economia da Ilíada - e o épico torna isto claro desde o início, com a contenda inicial em relação a Briseida e Criseida - depende da conversão de mulheres violadas e escravizadas em glória dos homens, mediante a acumulação de mulheres escravizadas como troféus de guerra que atestam a intrepidez de um homem.(...) Quando viramos a moeda para o seu lado mais sombrio, o resplandecente épico dos heróis como Aquiles é ativado pela opressão das mulheres.

Escravas, profetisas, rainhas, artistas, mães, todas estas mulheres tinham um traço em comum: tinham um valor de troca (como mercadoria, como trabalhadoras, como parideiras...) que as desumanizava, recusando-lhes o poder da identidade e da palavra, o valor jurídico, o reconhecimento enquanto iguais numa sociedade tendenciosamente androcêntrica:

Os corpos destas mulheres [oráculos] eram possuídos por um deus homem, as suas vozes canalizavam as palavras dele e os seus próprios versos eram «interpretados» por homens que falavam, literalmente, por elas e que se apoderavam dos papéis delas como profetisas. As profetisas eram mulheres que, como Cassandra, tinham uma voz, mas que não podiam dizer nada nas suas próprias palavras, que tinham um corpo, mas que não eram donas dele, e cujo discurso lhes era roubado e reconstruído por homens.

Entre redescobertas (como atribuições de género erróneas), confirmações de dados que já são conhecidos (como a divisão díspar de alimentos entre homens e mulheres) e teses inteiramente originais, Mythica vai-se construindo sobre um pano de fundo constritivo para se espraiar de forma absolutamente inédita sobre eventos históricos propositadamente olvidados:

Puduhepa foi muito bem-sucedida [n]a diplomacia internacional: o tratado de paz com o faraó egípcio Ramsés II, a seguir à Batalha de Cadés, que ela marcou com o seu selo ao lado do selo do marido e que assinou com o seu nome. Este texto, registado em hieróglifos egípcios gravados nas paredes dos templos de Ramsés e em placas de argila hititas, descobertas em Hatusa, é não só um feito impressionante para a manutenção da paz entre duas grandes potências antigas, mas é também, o que é notável, o mas antigo tratado de paz do mundo. Em homenagem às suas promessas de paz eterna, de amizade duradoura e de aliança mútua, está exposta uma réplica moderna do tratado, na sede das Nações Unidas em Nova Iorque: trata-se de uma recordação dos ideais que há milénios sustentam a diplomacia internacional. E ali, pendurado nas paredes da ONU, por onde passam todos os dias os membros da Assembleia Geral, encontra-se o mais antigo tratado de paz da história - ratificado pela assinatura de uma antiga rainha da Anatólia.

De modelos religiosos permutáveis a figuras estanques, as personagens que habitam a obra homérica têm, na sua génese, milhares e milhares de mulheres dos mais diversos estratos sociais, mulheres fortes e fracas, felizes e infelizes, ricas e pobres, jovens e velhas, troianas, egípcias, hititas, minoicas, micénicas, etc, etc - já agora, que curioso que o meu teclado apenas reconheça o masculino de cada uma destas palavras! - que permanecem eternizadas (ainda que escudadas num silêncio forçado) nas duas obras que são, efetivamente, o berço da cultura ocidental.
Fazendo justiça à história das mulheres (o primeiro autor da história - com obra atribuída - é, afinal, uma mulher), Hauser compõe, também ela, uma épica no feminino. Uma épica modernista composta de análises de ADN, escavações arqueológicas, assinaturas isotópicas, especialistas em escrita antiga, e em métodos e ferramentas de urdir e tecer, onde as mulheres são o ponteiro da bússola que guia o leitor numa nova leitura da poesia homérica, como uma história que encerra sobre si mesma o ciclo de repressão e sobrevivência femininas.
É inestimável o valor de uma publicação assim.

O tráfico de Helena corresponde, de muitas formas, ao início da História no Ocidente.

**********
Edição portuguesa: Bertrand Editora, 2025 (2 vol.): As mulheres da Ilíada; As mulheres da Odisseia.

Quando a Bertrand anunciou o lançamento da tradução portuguesa do mais recente livro de Emily Hauser, historiadora e classicista, não pensei duas vezes. Entrou em pré-venda e, ainda faltava quase um mês para o receber, já o livro estava pago e o carteiro na minha lista de mais procurados.
Pelo menos, até perceber que os editores tinham resolvido dividir o livro de Emily Hauser em dois volumes. O que significava duas coisas: primeiro que levaria mais de um mês a aguardar a edição do segundo volume; e segundo, que seria exigente com esta edição.
Infelizmente, a Bertrand não se revelou à altura.
Essa é a razão que justifica a demora na leitura. Normalmente, um livro destes seria tragado num muito curto espaço de tempo, mas os constantes vai e vem entre a edição portuguesa e o original (já lá vamos) levaram qualquer coisa como quase 4 longos meses. E porquê contrapor o original à tradução? Porque, afinal, não estamos apenas perante uma tradução (um bocadinho atabalhoada, aindaporcima), mas perante uma adaptação - coisa que não julguei possível em 2025. Uma adaptação que trunca o original pela metade decidindo, certamente para contenção de custos, eliminar, aleatoriamente, dezenas de imagens (muitas a cores), praticamente todas referidas em texto. O resultado é desastroso e motivou uma exposição à editora - a aguardar resposta.
A resenha ficará, por isso, associada ao original Mythica.

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Sing, goddess, the anger of Lady Selene and its devastation,
which puts pains thousandfold upon fraudster writers,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes,
but gave their bodies to be delicate feasting of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus
was accomplished since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Emily of the false words and brilliant Lady Selene."

This book ought be titled "Mythica: a FAKE History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It".

As this doesn't read like the author actually read the Iliad, she just decided to slap the label of 'victim' to all women in Homer's works to justify some passive-aggressive rant of a lunatic urging us to "examine the historical records" for ourselves - so there I was 'examining the historical records for myself' (i.e. reading the Iliad, Book 24) where Cassandra sees and announces that Priam is returning with Hektor's body for the entirety of the Trojan army to hear, and I really enjoyed the intensity of the moment with Cassandra. Then I went to examine the 'new historical record for myself', i.e this trope, where this CAMBRIDGE and YALE educated writer claims that Homer is a misogynist because he didn't mention Cassandra's prophetic powers.

The delusion continues with claims that Homer copied his verses on Cassandra from a Delphi prophetess called Daphne, but then admits this Daphne was probably invented by Diodorus in the 1st century.

This is the most misogynistic shit in town, it is difficult to follow the mental gymnastics involved in claiming that all women of Homer were victims lacking any substance, whilst using Homer's literary context for an in-depth commentary on these "women written out of history" - but what madness is this even when Homer places Women at the heart of his literary world, as without Helen or Briseis there would simply be no Iliad.

This writer fails to grasp the concept of the-big-picture of a War. In war, everyone is a victim. Homer's women have it tough as a product of the problematic time they live in - they had no human rights, they were seen as propriety, regardless of peace or war. That's historical context.

The writer also claims that she is on the "right side of history", what a distasteful comment to make in between ludicrous claims that all men just want to rape women and self-promotions of her other books, and the more she tries to convince me that she is a feminist, the less I believe her.

If anyone wrote out the Women of Homer's world, it is this writer with her outlandish distorted historical context meant to fit her agenda of a Homeric sexist conspiracy. To call Andromache a victim because she is anxious for her husband during the battle is just fucking stupid, her name literally means "fighter of men" or "man's battle", i.e. "courage" or "manly virtue", from the Greek stem ἀνδρ- ("man"), and μάχη ("battle") and has been historically praised for her Stoic Endurance.

The most infuriating part: this lunatic claims that Delphic prophetesses were mere "vessels to be filled by male gods" and whose words were interpreted by men - need I truly mention the abundance of historical sources describing female Oracles as the most revered members of their society? Someone watched the movie '300' one too many times and took it seriously.

Anyways, I should have stopped reading when she mentioned Greta Th*nberg.

[Abbie Toria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mythica was absolutely fascinating: 5 stars!

Using archaeological evidence, the latest scientific analysis techniques, and translations of ancient languages, Dr Emily Hauser explores how we can write the usually voiceless women back into Homer's epics. What would the real women alive during the Bronze Age time setting of The Iliad and The Odyssey have been like, and what would their lives have looked like?

Moreover, Hauser encourages us to change how we approach our analysis. It's both thought-provoking and brilliant. She introduced me to ancient peoples, cultures, and women I'd never heard of before.

Mythica is easily accessible to general readers, no previous knowledge needed! I also liked how the chapters were structured around different roles women take on during their lives, centred by the different women in Homer's epics.

If you're worried that Mythica may be a little long for a non-fiction read for you, it's worth knowing that the main text is only 350 pages long; the rest is a glossary and references!

Mythica has set me off on a new Greek mythology kick!

[Hades ( Disney's version ) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a "must have" if you're a history girle!! This was beautifully done, not hard to follow, and the images are great!

[lizard · Rating 3 out of 5]

"She knows that she can bleed. Why shouldn't they, too?"

An Aside: Let me begin by saying: I do not like Homer. I have never liked Homer. As a woman that has always had no interest in men and men's stories (and it is, in fact, a man's story), Homer thus has no appeal to me. I can know that it's foundational western literature—and the contents of it's pages—without torturing myself by reading it. More so, women in any facet of ancient Greek tradition—whether found in literature, like here, or general myth—have always been a hard spot for me. This is the "birthing culture" of the west, of "democracy," and yet one so repulsive toward half of the population.*

So, this book should have been an excellent read for me, someone who considers herself allergic to anything having more than a passing brush to do with classical Greece or Rome and its stories of importance. Fairly or not, this book had to handle the challenge of convincing me there's something valuable to be gleaned in Homer, through that which I do believe in—real history, accessed through modern research methods. To that end, Emily Hauser did well, which is a testament to her love for, and belief in the value of, Homer, and her conscious framing of the issues therein.

Now, the book itself: it operates off of scraps. This is not Hauser's fault, it's simply the nature of trying to tell ancient women's stories, which are so often undocumented, and I've read other books like it ( The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak). This means there's a lot of mays, might haves, could haves, and perhapses.

Hauser also discusses modern women writers and their reclamation of Homer (including Hauser herself; she's the author of For the Most Beautiful ), which is good and great—but she discusses that, and it's significance, a lot, way after we've gotten the point that it's a good thing, and what these authors are doing in giving agency to these women's voices. This is a clear sign of trying to bring in the Greek retelling crowd, as the book's own blurb advertises. It feels a wee bit like advertising, though, especially when almost every chapter is capped off by another listicle of books.

In a similar vein, some of the more pop culture references made my eye twitch. Comparing Cassandra to Greta Thunberg is a thing Hauser does. And, look, I'm the same age as Thunberg (not a grumpy boomer), and love her, but—please. Please, god, no. Just no. I'm not saying I don't get the parallel she's drawing but... no. Very much giving a "how do you do, fellow kids, this is a reference that is totally hip and relatable" vibe.

The worst, I believe, was organizing each chapter by Homer character, because some characters just don't have enough historical content. And that's okay. I'd rather not have a chapter on Circe if most of what we get is about Mycenaean pig raising. I mean, alright, there's a technical connection, I guess, and the information was a bit interesting. But what sealed the deal for me on this book structure was using the twelve enslaved women killed at the end of the Odyssey to discuss... earthquakes. Well, more broadly, the Late Bronze Age Collapse: a nightmare combination of drought, natural disaster, disease, invasion, and rebellion that brought down civilizations such as the Hittites.

We are introduced to the enslaved women's story, how, after slaughtering Penelope's numerous suitors Odysseus directs twelve slave women to clean the halls of the blood and gore, before they're to be hanged for... being raped by said suitors? (Though there's some debate on whether that was the offense, or if it was that they were colluding with the men. Do you see why I have no interest in Homer?) Either way, to make the medicore connection between these women and the tangent Hauser goes on about the existential crisis the Mediterranean region was facing, she writes:

Seen in this context, perhaps the brutal punishment meted out to the consummate scapegoats of the enslaved women represents an attempt to bar away the terrifying spectres that were to become the hallmarks of the end of the Bronze Age... But the ghosts of the enslaved women, and the flapping of their feet like the butterflies' wings that bring the hurricane, hint darkly that there is much more still to come.

No. Absolutely not. Leave the metaphor and those poor women alone.

Now, a pet peeve: What is Hauser's definition of prehistory? She'll write "...in the world of prehistoric Greece," before, in the next sentence, discussing what's been written on Linear B tablets, coming from this same "prehistoric" period—that isn't prehistory. We have written records, which is the standard criteria for "history," which most agree started in the fourth millennium bce, roughly, while this period is 1200/1300s bce. If she's talking pre-Herodotus and other formal "histories," then... that's odd. I'm not implying she doesn't know the difference in the two—thats impossible—but it was just confusing and distracting not having this contrary characterization explained. At least, if it was, I missed it.

In conclusion? Should I meet Heinrich Schliemann in the hereafter, I will give him an uppercut.

*Yes, compared with the changes that came to Greece under Roman Christian colonialism, there were some benefits this "othered" half were afforded, like, say, high priestesshood. But that shouldn't be used to dismiss the reality of most women, and also just why priestesses were offered those positions, and on what terms. And if someone cites goddesses such as Athena as an example of positive conceptions of women—you only need to look at what Minerva did to Medusa in Ovid's recollection to see what the archetypal Athena's role in classical culture was.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Shahin Keusch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got to be one of my favorite books i read this year. I loved how the chapters were organized and how they all started with some archeological dig and how what they learned from that dig fit into bronze age society and Homers writings and what we could learn about the women in those societies. highly recommended

[Alison]

My reaction to this book is entirely ambivalent. I was simultaneously so impressed and so irritated that I don't really know where to start.

On the one hand, I'm really tired of authors claiming they are giving someone in the past "back their voice" or "restoring their agency," as Hauser does here when she writes, for example, "recent novels have worked on giving Helen back her voice" (45, emphasis mine). An author can try to get as close to another human being's perspective as possible and closer is better than further away. The inevitability of imperfection does not make the attempt less worthwhile or less important. But an author can only write in her or his own voice, even if they are trying to imitate or approximate someone else's. And women are not automatically able to "restore" women's voices just by virtue of sharing their gender or sex or both.

On the other hand, right now, in my actual lifetime, there are people who say that women should be silent, that the 19th Amendment should be repealed and that women in the US at least should not vote. That's a real position that has enough traction in 2025 to be covered in the news.

And I bought Penelope's Bones because I was excited about a "New History of Homer's World through the Women Written Out of It." So there's a market, so to speak, for trying to understand more about women in classical antiquity, and in wanting to do so without taking everything that men wrote about them at face value. This is something I've been curious about for much of my life, including when I took a wonderful course in college called "Women in Antiquity" from a brilliant young (female) scholar who spoke so quietly that I couldn't hear what she was saying over the sound my notebook made when I turned a page. I endeavored to make my handwriting as small as humanly possible so that I'd have to turn pages as infrequently as possible in order to not miss a word. She was that interesting.

So I am both immensely interested in this and episodically irritated by its execution.

I'll start with some frustrations and then move on to what I admire.

Hauser puts herself in the company of modern female writers whose reworkings of Homeric legends "are trying to critique the world that produced Helen, and showing what it looks like when expressed in her own voice, when we tell her side of the tale." (45, emphasis mine). The Helen who appears in stories written by modern women writers "is very much a product of our times: refusing to be silenced, telling her own story." (45, emphasis mine) This is obviously not true, and not only because Helen, as Hauser herself states in a different paragraph, is not real. It's not Helen's "own" voice, or indeed the "own" voice of any historical female from classical antiquity just because a modern woman tells the story. It's the author's voice. It may be a different perspective, a more (or less) sympathetic perspective, a more (or less) respectful perspective -- but it is the author's perspective. And even if the author is a woman, she's separated from Helen and her real-life contemporaries by thousands of years.

A related, but different, piece of gravel in my shoe comes when Hauser announces that after centuries of not knowing what Helen -- or any real life living woman from the late Bronze Age -- really looked like, we have finally gotten closer. In the 1980s, she tells her readers, a team at the University of Manchester developed "one of the current major methods in facial reconstruction" (47) and applied it to some Mycenaean skulls, including one woman's skull. They "cast the skull, layered it with clay, sculpted the mouth, nose and eyes" (49 -- edited to remove gerunds). Ok, that's neat. I've now (because this made me curious) read some papers on archaelogical facial reconstruction using the Manchester method and it does appear that the technique, when applied to, for example, disaster victims, can come close enough to depicting a face that it is recognizable to family members. Hauser wasn't satisfied with what the Manchester method could do with the female Mycenaean skull, however, and she engaged a specialist in "digital facial reconstruction" to complete the job using AI. That specialist "gathered together historical and literary evidence to input criteria for their re-creation, and layered these over the Manchester mock-up to bring Gamma58 to breathtaking, vivid life. It is incredibly exciting to think that, for the first time since she was laid beneath the ground over three and a half thousand years ago, we are able to gaze into the actual face of a Bronze Age royal woman – just like Helen." (49-50, emphasis mine). This, once again, seems to me to go too far. This is not a woman's actual face. It is a likeness -- most reliable when it comes to skeletal structure, least reliable when it comes to lips and ears. Not only that, but it's a likeness generated using, in addition to the physical remains, "historical and literary evidence." How, then, is it supposed to finally liberate us from our dependence on the descriptions produced by 3000 years of male gaze? All too typical of AI-boosterism that promises to create something humans can't create by using prior works created by, you guessed it, uncredited humans. As an aside, when Hauser refers to the "restoration" (she uses scare quotes around 'restore,' 'reconstitution,' and 'completed') of the Snake Goddess found at Knossos, she is blisteringly critical of the man who "fabricate[d] a fiction about women and package[d] it up as fact" (151) - which is notable coming from a scholar who hired a digital facial reconstruction artist to decide that a skull's eyes were blue.

Chapter 2 continues in the same vein: "A cluster of modern novels written by women has recently endeavoured to reclaim her [Briseis's] story, not just rereading her role in Homer, but giving her a voice once again. ... Women writers are putting Briseis back at the forefront of her own tale to show, in her own words..." (66, emphasis mine). Leaving aside that we only know about Briseis at all because of Homer, who created her (if we think of Homer as the collective storytellers whose iterative composition was finally codified in writing long after it was begun) -- women writers can certainly rewrite the western canon in their female voices, but they cannot rewrite it in "the female voice" (67) any more than one woman can tell another woman what she would say with her voice if it were "given back" to her.

Ok, now some elements of the book I found especially impressive.
1. Hauser is generous. She starts most chapters with someone else's discovery -- often an archaeologist, sometimes a linguist or forensic scientist. She names these other scholars and celebrates their achievements, even if (in some cases) she also criticizes their limitations. She acknowledges other authors and names them -- not only Emily Wilson, but also contemporary female novelists. Most of the bragging she does is on behalf of a collective -- modern female scholars and authors -- not only on her own behalf. I love the team spirit!

2. Hauser is incredibly smart, erudite, and well-informed. I'm not going to elaborate on this (it's expected of academics, after all) but it's important to acknowledge. She is a great writer and can really turn a phrase. (Admittedly sometimes she turns them too far, as in "If Circe was a witch, however, Kim Shelton is an archaeologist" (307). Or when she suggests that maybe Odysseus only spent 7 years on Calypso's island because that's how long it would take a solitary woman to make a sail.

3. Hauser's investigation crosses traditional boundaries in fruitful ways - she will read Hammurabi to understand Homer, she will compare Hittite and Egyptian and Greek stories and what we know about their religious practices. She understands the Mediterranean and Anatolia as a place of exchange and interchange, not of some kind of civilizational divide that separates Europe from Asia. This is very cool.

4. Hauser answers questions I've had for a long time, creatively and intelligently. Her chapter on Nausicaa the Bride helped me understand the issue around dowry, inheritance, property at the center of Penelope's dilemma and I've really been wondering about this. For me, this chapter alone made the whole book worth it.

5. Hauser tells us how she knows what she knows, even if that means getting into the 'science' -- and she does it in a way that remains accessible and is respectful of her reader's ability to follow along. I love this. So many authors adopt a "you'll have to trust me because I don't have time to explain it" attitude, and she doesn't. Hers is more "I'm sure you want to know how I know and it's super complicated but I'll do the best I can." A minor example chosen because it's relatively simple is: we know that X civilization already raised domesticated sheep for wool (and weaving) because sheep bones show they had both male and female sheep, and male sheep don't produce lambs, or sheep's milk, and they don't make great meat, so if a culture has lots of male sheep, they must raise them for wool.

In sum, This book is a huge accomplishment. It presents a lot of recent scientific discoveries that enhance our understanding of the Late Bronze Age. I didn't know about any of them. At the same time, I lost my patience with the tone it adopts in places -- the self-satisfied "I, heroic author, have rescued some person or persons from the past and restored their story." To be fair to authors, this kind of tone is sometimes demanded by publishers, agents, marketers. Especially non-fiction books are supposed to make an important intervention, upend what we already knew, disrupt some status quo. All I wanted from Hauser was a thoughtful engagement with stories I knew and perhaps exposure to a few I didn't know. A new perspective would be enough. She provides one! I just wish it didn't come with all the agency-talk.

[Enry Ravaglini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strong dislike.

This is primarily a modern history of archeology and textual (e.g. Linear B) analysis. It isn't primarily a critique of Homer and the various women who live within his poems--rather, it uses each character as a trope to examine their reflexive role in Bronze Age Greece (and beyond! take the narrative to Mesopotamia!). If you're reading this because you love the Iliad and the Odyssey, you may be disappointed.

There's a good amount to be learned from the book, but many of the takes are ridiculous and the methods used to examine them almost feel disingenuous. I really hated all the small details that connected the narrative to our current day (using AI to reconstruct an image from Helen was especially annoying).

The most dramatic point in my reading came during the Calypso chapter: Hauser describes the modern fashion industry, and constrasts that to the duty of labor that spinning and weaving fabric would place on Bronze age women. She then does some completely bullshit back of the envelope calculation to tabulate that it would take a single person, oh... about 7 years to spin a sail on their own. She then suggests:

"[...] perhaps, instead [this is] a story about a woman who's been given an impossibly large and lonely task, who's been held hostage by the demands of her labour. Perhaps, if you lived all by yourself in the middle of the ocean, it would take seven year to make a sail."

What the fuck? What the fuck??? This book is completely riddled with refrains that [state interesting fact] -> [draw conspiratorial conclusion] over and over again. I understand and appreciate the need for a polemical stance, but this is just ridiculous.

I also hated how Hauser dropped Helen's appearance in the Odyssey.

The plea for the reader to examine the historical record for themselves feels more like a crazy person on the internet telling me to "do my own research" rather than something like a muse opening my eyes to a hidden wisdom.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literature and its historical telling excel when it is reflected through a lens beyond the typical. This author smartly adds to our understanding by re-introducing women into the history.

Florida’s ignorant governor thinks that it’s meaningful when he says “Homer yes, gender studies no” little realizing that multiple perspectives add to our understanding.

“Hector died and then came the Amazons” possibly the last line of the Odyssey in some versions. Cassandra was right while destined to be ignored. Ignorant governors ignore valuable voices while claiming superiority. To feel superior, he shuts out multiple perspectives, and readers of this book get to take one step towards being less ignorant than the governor of Florida.

[lucy is reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and incredibly well researched look into how Bronze Age women lived, loved, and died.

Each chapters contains a singular character from either the Iliad or Odyssey (sometimes from both), and dives into the historical basis of the character. It’s such an interesting way to study the Bronze Age, combining archaeological evidence with translated poetry. I really enjoyed unpicking the reality of women’s lives in this period, both the good and the bad.

I particularly loved reading about each women’s historical context in a very engaging and interesting way. By looking at what we actually know about Bronze Age women, and applying it to the mythical women in Homer, I had a much better understanding of why Homer’s poems would have been so important to ancient audiences. It also interesting to read about how misused these epics are in more modern study for people’s own agendas (as I didn’t study classics at university).

This book is not just challenging the masculine version of Homer, but of the Hellenic-only version too. In these chapters, Hauser looks past prior western readings of Homer to look at true multicultural bonds between ancient societies. Hauser dives into how connected societies were, and how women had similar experiences, no matter their home country.

It’s always so hard to retrace the steps of women past, but it’s incredibly important to do this because it can really change how the historical narrative is influenced and changed by those that dictated it before hand.

Thank you to the publishers for this arc. All thoughts are my own.

Publishes; 17th April

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout the centuries, predominantly male historians and archeologists have placed contemporary stereotypes and agendas onto their Bronze Age findings, sometimes seeing simply what they wanted to see. These historical interpretations have shaped our image of this ancient time period, now based on 'out of date' findings, and it turns out that revisiting the ancient texts through a new lens thanks to scientific advances in analyses throws a lot of it into question.

That's exactly what Emily Hauser does in Mythica, this groundbreaking non-fiction in which she masterfully deconstructs the bias, building blocks of evidence to new and unbiased findings. Set out into chapters linked to women from both The Iliad and The Odyssey, Emily powerfully combines a short piece of fiction with an archeological or other scientific discovery and how this links to the women of the ancient texts and the Bronze Age landscape. It's easy to follow yet absolutely full of fascinating and thought-provoking information - I went down MANY google rabbit-holes. It's maddening and depressing at times how the oppression of women seems to be a circle but I'm so glad we have wonderful and inspiring people like Emily Hauser bringing women to the forefront. After recently learning more about Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology I was especially intrigued by the links Emily makes to their deities.

One especially captivating chapter shows how an advance in aDNA testing is now allowing us to identify the biological sex of ancient remains: lo and behold many of those thought to be men due to gender-binary assumptions based on their grave goods (swords and other weapons) are actually turning out to be women. This goes both ways - the remains of the 'Griffin Warrior' discovered in a Bronze Age shaft tomb was labelled as a 'dandy' by The New York Times for being buried with jewellery, combs and a mirror. These are clear examples of modern stereotypes being used to interpret ancient findings and as Emily reminds us, ‘If we want to aim for more equality now, then we need to keep interacting with and interrogating the tales that have been told about the past based on the new evidence being unearthed, in order to understand the processes of oppression and exclusion that have taken place across the centuries, and retrieve the lost or silenced voices that history forgot.

This is just a taste of what Mythica has to offer and I really do urge to you to read it for yourself. I was reading The Iliad for the first time whilst reading this and it added a whole new level!

[abi slade · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

pros ✅
- very interesting, did feel like i was learning things
- horrible (but interesting) to find out that incels weaponise the odyssey & ancient greece in general to promote a misogynistic agenda
- AI being good for reimagining how Helen of Troy (& other ancient people) might have looked based on actual bits of skull, interesting
- christopher marlowe originated the “face that launched a 1000 ships” line in Dr Faustus? that was news to me
- child rearing and infant mortality was devastatingly sad
- geographical confusion between modern Ithaki and Homer’s Ithaca were interesting because we’d always been told Ithaca was rocky and mountainous but it’s actually Ithaki that is, Ithaca “lies low”

cons ❌
- ancient tin/bronze section deeply boring. there were a handful of sections like this that dragged a lot
- “more than a hundred suitors” please, for the LOVE of god, SAY 108. THERE WERE 108.
- i was relieved to be done with it - not because parts of it weren’t interesting - but because it felt like work. i wasn’t sitting down to relax, this was hard work for my brain at points
- a lot more geography / science than i had bargained for
- ugly cover
- really stagnated my reading progress for this year. eight days on one book? let’s keep this moving please
- i do think that putting “did you love Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’? Pat Barker’s ‘Silence of the Girls’? Jennifer Saint’s ‘Elektra’? Natalie Haynes’ ‘A Thousand Ships’?” on the back of the book is a really silly thing to do. Mythica is NOTHING like those four examples - ALL of which are fiction. This is non-fiction! The only thing they all have in common is centring greek women’s stories, but that is where the similarities end. If she’d put on the back - “did you love Natalie Haynes’ ‘Divine Might’ or ‘Pandora’s Jar’?” then YEAH, that would have been a bit more relevant!

[Iola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really detailed, informative, and insightful account of the lives of women through Homer's epics.
It is very clearly grounded in archaeological evidence, and I liked how it highlighted lesser-known or overlooked women who have contributed to research in this area, too. Textual evidence from The Iliad and The Odyssey are frequently drawn upon, and whilst some context is provided, I think knowledge of these poems is helpful to not only recognise the women being analysed and how they might reflect the lives of women more broadly, but also understand the wider significance of their placement in a male narrative.
Sometimes in the book's archaeological rigor, it felt like it took a while to get back to the main discussion about how it relates to women in Homer's epics, but the author is very intentional with the structure of the book, and it works well.
I'd recommend particularly to anyone with a background in Classical Studies looking for a more in-depth look at women not only in Homeric texts but the Late Bronze Age in general. I wouldn't say this is necessarily introductory, though - as mentioned, I think knowledge of the two texts and the women within them is helpful to appreciate this book.

[Cheyenne Conrady · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to say anything about Mythica that hasn’t already been said by all my favorite accounts but this book is so special, I have to try. It deserves a spot on my profile, my mantle, and in my heart — and now it has all three!

I knew I’d fall in love with this book because it has been heaped with well-deserve praise, and it’s a perfect amalgamation of all my greatest interests (ancient history, mythology, Homer, archaeology, and of course women). But as I had the pleasure of sharing with Dr. Hauser, I didn’t expect it to make me so emotional. With every chapter, my heart broke more for the ancient women who came before us, and for all of their untold stories.

In Mythica, Hauser uses the latest DNA analysis available, evidence from original texts and stunning archaeological finds to unravel the mysteries of ancient women’s lives that had yet to be uncovered. And she does this in the most captivating, interesting prose that you almost forget you’re reading nonfiction — except that she’s clearly an expert.

It’s hard to play favorites in a book where all my favorite Greek myth ladies were invited to the party, but I will say the chapters on Hecuba and Penthesilea were absolutely fascinating, and the chapters on Briseis and Thetis crushed me. If you thought you already had curiosity, compassion or empathy for ancient women — trust me, read this and realize you haven’t even scratched the surface.

As Dr. Hauser shared, her aim is to make readers feel as though these women are just as alive as those in fiction. Beyond that, she has proven they are just as real as the ones we will find in the future, the ones we knew in the past, and the ones we are ourselves, today.

[emmareadsya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I really enjoyed this!!! It's such a unique blend of culture, mythology, and archeology. My anthropological dream. I appreciated that each chapter stood on its own as a discussion about that mythological figure and the role she would play in society while also having a connecting thread between them. Each story leads into the next in a natural progression. I also appreciate that this shows a lot of ugly truths about women in this time period. Well-researched, very dense with information, but accessible at the same time.

[Zita Szigeti · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the weirdest book I have ever read. Its title is "A New History" but it is not a scientific book though tries to be one. There are loads of references to random sources (who's looking at all these footnotes?) which makes it look like an academic writing. At the same time there are no real deductions from the otherwise interesting descriptions of archeological findings. The author provides her opinion without any explanation or her explanation is very subjective. Of course, she claims that she is "on the right side of history" (WTF), which is basically the one that is based on genders. She is trying to tell the reader that all men are brutes whose only aim is to enslave and rape women. Already the premise of searching for history in Homer's epic (which is a literary genre, and fiction even though it might be based on historical or legendary events and characters). I am expecting another book from her on Beowulf in which she tries to prove that even the fire breathing dragon was real and gender biased against women...
The worst was her writing style - full of half-page long sentences that include a bunch of irrelevant information so by the end of it you don't remember who was the subject at the beginning of the sentence. If my grade 10 students wrote like this, they would not pass my essay writing class.
My advice: the author should seek help from a psychiatrist.

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]]

Oh I'm excited for this

[Teri-K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of the Odyssey since I first discovered it on my grandfather's bookshelf when I was nine or ten. I loved it so much I immediately turned around and read it again. Over the decades, I've had fun diving into various translations. On the other hand, I struggle to appreciate The Iliad. So when I heard about this book I was very eager to read it, and wondered how my different reactions to the two stories would affect my appreciation of it. In the end, it didn't really matter if I was a fan or not, as each chapter stood on its own as a fascinating look into the Late Bronze Age and some of the women who lived then.

The books begins chronologically, with The Iliad. Each chapter is about a different woman referenced in the epics, beginning with a short dramatic retelling of the woman's role in the story. Then the reader is introduced to where and how the evidence relating to this type of woman was found. Some of these archaeological findings were quite dramatic in themselves, and they are a good way to begin describing why a certain artifact is significant.

There's so much in this book to absorb – including discussions of how Homer sought to explain cultural differences to listeners who had no concept of women wielding political power. The author looks at how masculine interpretations and translations by archaeologists have short-changed women in these epics, including sometimes physically "completing" statues and frescoes to fit their modern idea of what they should look like. She then offers solid evidence, not mere speculations, for the importance of women to the Late Bronze Age and Homer's stories.

I appreciated that the author was careful not to read too much into the latest discoveries, as there isn't a lot a lot of physical evidence for life in this time, especially about women and children. She does a good job helping the reader to interpret what we do know, without leaps of fancy being presented as facts.

This look at Homer doesn't shy away from the reality of women's powerlessness against slavery, rape, forced labor, etc. It points out, for example, that Nestor in The Iliad makes clear that the point of the Trojan war isn't just to get Helen back, but to rape as many "enemy" women as possible in revenge.

At the end of the chapters the author also talks about recent novels that retell these women's stories in fiction. And she relates these ancient women's issues to our own today. There are also some wonderful photographs scattered throughout the book, not all lumped at the end, which makes the reading richer.

I loved reading this book, learning so much and developing new ways of viewing the women in these epics. I'll be immediately rereading them and look forward to blending what I read here into those stories. This is a very accessible yet detailed look at what we know, think we know, and have no clue about, when it comes to the lives the of the types of women who inspired these classics. Whether you're a fan or not, if you have any interest in these topics at all, I recommend this highly.

Thank you to University of Chicago Press, the author and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

[Mimi Schweid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since this is a library book I did not highlight various portions of this beautifully woven book. The transitions between each essay chapter is so deeply satisfying. I'd write them out in the review but I want others to appreciate it without my rambling. However, I will at least add a white form the end.

"And so this book encourages you, the reader to be discerning about this and all the other histories that are offered up to you. It attempts to show how we might critically examine the facts, texts, and stores we tell about ourselves and each other, based on a thorough analysis of the evidence, in order to improve the way we interpret the world. Above all, I hope that it will encourage you not to be afraid to be challenged to think in new ways. History is a conversation we are all apart of, and we need to keep having that conversation, critiquing it, debating it. This is just one voice among many. We are have a part to play in thinking about how we remember the past - and how we write the future."

Oh, and of course this very silly one from the Circe chapter.
"We're then blessed with Socrates' two most fun tips: don't eat if you're not hungry, and don't have sex with good-looking people."

[Terence]

7 out of 10

A mixture of lit-crit, archaeology and ancient history, Penelope's Bones is, as the subtitle implies, a look at the cultures flourishing in Late Bronze Age Mycenean Greece and Anatolia using the women found in The Iliad and The Odyssey as launching points to explicate life in the period.

Well worth the read (or, in this case, the listen since it was my companion on my daily walks). Recommended.

[Sophie Kressy ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review is for Penelope’s Bones, which I need to mention since other reviews for this book mention Mythica, which seems like a whole other book? Maybe a precursor?

Also, unlike most ratings for the book so far, no one sent me this book to read, promote, and post a review. I found this all on my own without the *tiniest* of bribery.

For the review - I read as long as I could. Made it to 75% before the bad writing and fact-stretching could take over.

I was super excited about this book, who doesn’t love women in greek mythology?

Hauser tries to connect fact to fiction by combining archeological and scientific findings with Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. She chooses to focus on the mythical women of ancient Greece, in an attempt to re-tell their stories and rewrite the narrative. Very solid concept.

Although she makes some cool connections, and I did learn *some* things, there simply is not enough fact OR fiction to make the connections she makes. This isn’t her fault, but makes you wonder how it got past editing.

What ends up happening, since there is a lack of information, is Hauser instead implies HER biases, her opinions, her takes on what it meant to be a woman in ancient greece.

N.B. I love song of achilles, and this new genre of retelling greek mythology through women’s perspectives. But those are explicitly works of fiction. Not the case here.

As I read, I became more and more infuriated with her descriptions of these fictional women. Hauser would try to subscribe emotion to these ancient greek women, and honestly, I found her descriptions weak, simplistic, and wrong??

At one point she chooses to describe Andromache, wife of Hector, as a sort of sad, hopeless woman because her husband has to go to war to defend his home. Yes, Andromache is completely reliant on her husband and his outcome (life or death), but there remains a quiet resilience and strength in woman as such. Andromache was a historic military wife, as Hauser calls out, but there has always existed a sacrifice, dignity, and strength in this that has been admired, even for modern day women. But Hauser wanted to retell it more so as Hector abandoning Andromache, with her begging him not to go, ignorant of the realities. Feel bad for Andromache, pity her, the poor woman (eye roll).

If you told a present-day military wife, who faces very similar realities, this description, she’d most likely throw hands.

This is just one example, but I found Hauser to generally not give these women dignity or authority in their descriptions. That’s not real life, and from my perspective, points to a lack in understanding of complex female issues in Hauser’s case.

So, alas, I could not finish the book. There was barely enough fact to sustain the book, and I got tired of her weird perspectives of women and their experiences.

The end.

[Saimi Korhonen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"– the ways in which we narrate the past should be critically re-examined – because as we've seen from Thucydides to Nietzsche to the Red Pill, history has always been made with an agenda. Bringing the stories we've been told to the table, examining historical narratives through the lense of the ideas and values we believe in, enables us to unsilence the past, to speak up for the kind of world we want to live in now – and so to write a story for the future, where all voices can be heard."

In Mythica, Emily Hauser shines a light on not just the intriguing, powerful and often silenced female characters of Homer’s two epics but also on the real historical women behind them. There really were politically and religiously active queens like Hecuba. Behind the witch Circe, there’s a long history of women’s herbal knowledge. A female prophetess like Cassandra could’ve existed. The enslaving and trafficking of girls and women like Briseis was all too common. And Andromache’s marriage to Hector reflects common, political marriage alliances of the Bronze Age of which Homer writes about. Through a brilliant combination of literary analysis, mythology, archaeology and modern scientific technology, Emily Hauser gives these mythical and historical women back their voice.

Sometimes I read a history book that reminds me why I love history and why I love being a historian. Mythica is one of those books. Not only was Hauser’s writing engaging and her chapters full of information and brilliant analysis, I also loved the way she discussed history as a field. She writes about how history is and always has been subjective – "History is about which facts we choose to recall." – and how we should look at historiography critically, approach history from diverse point of views and learn to separate historical events from written history. Hauser does a great job unpacking the layers of misogyny that surrounds not just Homer but how his and his epic’s time periods have been written about and understood. She showcases how misogyny has impacted the way ancient sources and finds have been interpreted – skeletons buried with weapons were often, for example, declared men simply because they had weapons – and how in focusing only on the male characters of Homer’s epics, scholars have ignored crucial aspects of the stories and pushed women, who are central to the events of both epics, to the sidelines. Hauser reminds the reader that without Helen there is no Iliad, that the Iliad begins with Briseis, that without Athena there is no Odyssey and that it is women who end the Iliad, not warrior men.

Every chapter is dedicated to one female character of epic and is focused on not just her fictional story but also on the evidence that supports the existence of women like them in the past. As a huge antiquity nerd, I already knew a lot about these women and women’s history of the Bronze Age, but I learned so many new things. There’s a grave in Aidonia that has the skeletons of three generations of women, hinting at a possible matrilineal succession, kinda like the one Helen belonged to. Women were prophets, like Cassandra – and just like Cassandra, they were considered vessels for male gods to share their wisdom and words. There is evidence of Hittite women ritualists, dream interpreters and the like, even a princess like Cassandra who shared her visions. Queens of the Hittites also had important religious roles as well as an active political role, just like Hecuba has. Knots featured in love spells people did to make their spouses, for example, love them again – and there’s evidence of knots being significant aspects of belts of love goddesses like Aphrodite and Ishtar/Inanna (Aphrodite specifically borrows a love belt to Hera). Thetis’s struggle to save her mortal son from certain death is a struggle so many mothers faced at this time of brutal child mortality – it’s just that her all-too-relatable pain is magnified to mythical levels: "No mother will find the untimely death of a child more unimaginable, more devastatingly unthinkable, than an immortal deity who almost gave birth to a deathless god."

Just like Homer’s women – from slaves to queens – spend their days weaving, so did real historical women. It was time-consuming, exhausting labour that kept economy, households and tradition of gift-giving going – and it is labour that has long been ignored by (male) scholars. Homer also specifically mentions women enslaved specifically for their crafts skills, of which there’s also historical proof. The conversations surrounding Nausicaa’s possible engagement to Odysseus (such as bride price) echo Bronze Age legal systems such as Hammurabi’s law. Gift-giving and guest friendship weren’t just concepts of myth but also formed the bedrock of ancient diplomacy – the Amarna letters, for example, contain letters detailing the grand gifts ancient kings and queens gave to each other to cement alliances. Women were experts at herbs and plants, like Circe is, and midwives used magic wands (Circe has one too) to ward off evil from newborns. The Griffin Warrior – a male skeleton that was buried with both female and male grave goods – is an example of possible gender fluidity which is present also in the shape-shifting war-and-crafts goddess of Athena, who was, as Hauser puts it: ”Nearly-a-son but not, born from a male god through the swing of an axe, wearing the armour you'd expect of a man but with a woman's body underneath, Athena is a complex web of gender paradoxes." There’s proof of horse-riding warrior women who lived in nomadic communities (not gender-segregated communities) near the Black Sea who have battle wounds – the Amazons weren’t just a figment of imagination like it was so long believed.

Hauser highlights the multiple parallels between our modern world and the Bronze Age world. I especially loved how she wrote about the way women’s labor was then and still is today often belittled or completely ignored. In the Calypso chapter, Hauser does a deep dive into ancient textile industries and draws clear parallels between the grueling, exhausting, unprotected and low-paid work of women in textile shops in the Bronze Age and the similarly inhumane working conditions, hours and pay of workers (who are mostly women) in modern day sweatshops. Seems we have always liked to enjoy nice clothes and pay as little we can for them which of course means the workers will not be treated well or fairly. Hauser also writes about what the Iliad and the Bronze Age can tell us about climate disasters. The Iliad’s story happens because Zeus thinks the world is overcrowded (the world literally cannot handle as many people as there are now) so he organizes a disaster that will wipe out a good chunk of men. Cassandra Hauser compares to people like Greta Thunberg – people who see the disaster looming ahead but who are not listened to, who are branded problems. The collapse of the Bronze Age also came about largely because of similar issues we face today – climate change, drought, water and food scarcity, and war. Reading this book forces you to look at your own world and life, your own decisions, and I think that’s wonderful – there is so much we can learn from the past if only we'd listen and pay attention. I loved this quote from Hauser about the end of the Bronze Age: "Over the course of around a century, as drought swept across the land and crops dried up, as earthquakes shook the foundations of the earth and the grain-filled ships melted away from the harbours, as migrants fled across the seas looking for new homes and invaders put cities to the torch, the complex, interlinked civilizations of the Late Bronze Age were thrown into chaos."

Some smaller things I really enjoyed: The discussion around Athena’s gender and how she uses gendered attributes whenever she switches personas and roles to signal her gender. The exploration of how, though they all speak Greek and have very Greek names, many of the Trojan women seem to have qualities and attributes of Anatolian and Hittite women. Everything about the fab Hittite queen Puduhepa, who lived until 90, ruled alongside her husband Hattusili III, used her personal seal alongside his, played a key role in foreign diplomacy (her and queen Neferfari’s, Ramses II’s wife’s, letters survive to us), arranged dynastic marriages and was not just a queen but a chief priestess. The story of Samuel Butler who, in 1897, published his theory on Homer having been a woman because, among other things, the epics feature so many female characters and emphasize women’s activities and because surely only a naive woman would write Odysseus returning to a middle-aged wife rather than stay with young, pretty Nausicaa. The theory that the ancient, mythical Ithaca might be Paliki, the peninsula of Cephalonia which was, according to historical and geographical evidence, once its own island. The evidence we have of two ahhiyawan (achaean) brothers attacking Wilusa during Hattusili III’s reign, back when Wilusa was ruled by a man named Alaksandu (Paris’s name is Alexandros) – tantalizing parallels to the Iliad. The exploration of how far-right and men's rights groups have co-opted and twisted antiquity, its figures and symbols, to promote their own agendas while also ignoring, for example, the cultural diversity, its differing sexual practices and so on of the real historical past.

I am a historian, not an archaeologist, which meant that all the cool stuff with new archaeology technology and methods was new to me. It was super fun reading about developments in facial reconstruction, marine archaeology, DNA testing (thanks to DNA stuff scientists can figure out what color hair and eyes skeletons had, for example, which is fucking rad) and the like. DNA testing also showed evidence of endogamy (first and second cousin marriages) among regular people to have been widely popular, though not so much in the upper classes, where marriage was often alliance-based. She also explored how archaeologists of the past have gotten things wrong – Arthur Evans, discoverer of Knossos, for example wanted to find evidence of a matriarchal Mother Goddess worshiping culture so when he found the famous snake ladies, he just decided they were Snake Goddesses – and how ancient artifacts have purposefully been modified (people at the British Museum scrubbed remnants of paint from statues to make them fully white). She also purposefully shines a light on often forgotten female scholars of the past whose contributions to archaeology has often been overshadowed by those of the men around them.

I would happily recommend this book to anyone interested in either Greek history or mythology (for the ancients, they were one and the same). Any enjoyer of women's history will also find plenty to love about this book. I truly adored it. I wanna end this review with one of the most striking quotes from the book about why these epics still matter to us and why we return to them over and over again: ”Not only are they extraordinary epic tales, offering defining moments of love, loss, glory, bravery, death – stories that defy irrelevance, stories that you already know and yet you read again and again as if for the first time. They also thrive on change. They need to be commented on, reacted to, translated, modified, adapted, according to what each generation wants to say and who they want to include."


Here are some cool facts I learned:

- The so-called Dark Ages of antiquity (about 1050–300 BC) is a period that really wasn’t all that dark, it just means that there is no written record of the period that survives to us.

- We know of about 3200 ancient male authors, but less than 100 female authors names survive to us.

- It is estimated that it took 7–8 hours for women to spin, by hand, enough thread to weave for an hour. Making a sail, like Calypso does for Odysseus, would’ve taken years.

- When Schliemann found “Helen’s jewels”, he made his wife pose wearing them.

- Reneissance pamphlets advised good Christians not to name their daughters Helen because of all the mythical baggage of that name.

- Akrotiri, the “Pompeii of the Aegean”, a city that was buried by a volcano eruption and preserved as it was, was discovered in the 1960s.

- Hecuba’s name might have its roots in the Anatolian goddess, Kubaba.

- A copy of the peace treaty of Hattusili III and his wife Puduhepa and the Egyptian king Ramses II (earliest surviving peace treaty) is displayed in the headquarters of the United Nations as a reminder of the long history of diplomacy and peace-seeking.

- Hattusa, capital of the Hittites, was discovered in 1907.

- Ancient “Troy” fell around 1190–1180. Or that at least is the general consensus.

- Scientists were able to pinpoint the three-year climax of a decades-long drought (1198–1196) in the Hittite Empire by studying TREES.

- The Wilusians had a god called Apaliuna, and the Hittites’ version of Apaliuna was a plague god. Origins of Apollo? And reason for him being the pro-Trojan god?

- Mycenaean Linear B has been deciphered. Minoan Linear A has not.

- In antiquity, tortoises, weasels and puppies, as well as magic wands, were part of a midwife’s toolkit.

- In the northern Black Sea area it has been estimated that around 20% of all graves with weapons (5th to 5th century BC) belonged to women. And half of female burials in Mycenae had weapons.

- Female skeletons from the Bronze Age often feature injuries consistent with a lifetime of crafts. Weaving and the like was literally body-breaking work.

- In the Iliad Amazons are described with a word that means both “women against men” and “women comparable to men”.

- The bone of a Syrian house mouse was found among the wreckage of the Uluburun ship, which confirmed the ship had to have stopped at Syria. I love that this mouse has had such a legacy.

[Tamára · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️ Um livro de não-ficção, de leitura fácil, sobre as mulheres da Ilíada. Suscita várias reflexões sobre o papel das mulheres ao longo da história (e sobre o seu silêncio).

Gostava que este livro tivesse mais imagens a acompanhar as descrições e os exemplos que a autora vai dando.

Este livro poderá ser mais interessante para quem está a pensar ler a Ilíada. Ou para quem já leu e quer aprofundar um pouco mais a sua perspectiva feminina.

[Joanne Gass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book! Resurrecting the forgotten women of Bronze Age Greece with current scholarship, archeology, and myriad other scientific evidence, she creates a rich portrait of not only the Iliad and Odyssey but of the entire region.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s also cuttingly symbolic of our hunt for Late Bronze Age women that the eponymous lions of the Lion Gate have been systematically misgendered as male – when they’re actually a fierce and gorgeous pair of female lions. (If you visit Mycenae, I encourage you to annoy as many people as you can by pointing out that this is, in fact, the ‘Lioness Gate’.) [loc. 5624]

An examination of the role of women in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and in the wider realm of Greek myth. In her introduction, Emily Hauser says she's exploring 'what new discoveries about the real women of history can do to help us understand Homer – not what Homer can tell us about the Late Bronze Age' [loc. 819]. And she points out that, although women are treated as secondary, as property, as lesser, they are essential to the stories. The Iliad begins with two men quarrelling over an enslaved woman (Briseis): the Odyssey ends with Odysseus going home (via Calypso, Circe and Nausicaa) to Penelope.

In chapters titled for the different women -- human and divine -- who power the stories, Hauser examines archaeological evidence, ancient DNA, linguistics (I am now mad keen to read about Linear-B!), the changing geography of the eastern Mediterranean, the ways in which the women of Greek myth have been reimagined in literature (I hadn't realised Briseis is the source for Chaucer and Shakespeare's Cressida), the histories of other civilisations in the Late Bronze Age, and the practicalities of women's lives in that period. She also presents a fascinating overview of gender roles, as typified in burials (traditionally graves with mirrors were assumed to be burials of women, and those with swords burials of men: this turns out to be overly simplistic) and in pronoun use in the Odyssey, where Athena, in disguise as Mentor, is referred to by the gender-neutral term 'min'.

There is so much fascinating detail here: the Hittite stories which may have been one of Homer's sources; Schliemann asking his Greek tutor to find him 'a black-haired Greek woman in the Homeric spirit' and choosing his wife Sophia, famously photographed wearing 'Priam's Treasure', from a selection of photographs; the length of time it takes to weave a sail for a ship (four years: possibly Calypso, instead of bewitching Odysseus for seven years, couldn't wait to see the back of him but had to provide a sail before he could leave); Γ58, the skeleton of a woman found with an immensely valuable electrum death-mask... Hauser is an excellent communicator (also a novelist: I shall look out for her fiction) and the occasional colloquialism (Cassandra as 'a Greta Thunberg of ancient times', for instance) doesn't distract or detract from the accessible, well-referenced account of women's roles in the centuries around the Late Bronze Age collapse.

I'm tempted to buy this book in paper form: I think it will be an invaluable reference, as well as an excellent read.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mythica is an incredibly researched, brilliantly vivid exploration into the lives of both the famous and the relatively unknown women of the Bronze Age.

As a huge greek mythology fan, this book was the perfect way to deepen my own knowledge and provide even more rich history of the names I know and love, from Athena, Cassandra and Circe, to Eurycleia Hera to Calypso.

Emily did a fantastic job of combining the fictional storytelling (especially from Homer’s poems of The Iliad and The Odyssey) with non-fiction historical research, to create an immersive understanding of how Bronze Age woman might have behaved, lived and died; and went into such vivid detail to highlight how these stories differed from real-world scientific discovery.

I learnt so much about how these stories interweave with feminism, colonialism, racism, misogyny and misinterpretation- and it was a fascinating mixture of archaeology, geography, classics and literature. I highly recommend this to any mythology or history fan, especially if you love The Odyssey or The Iliad!

Just as an aside; I’d like to make clear how this isn’t a mythological retelling, and is a historical text based on non-fiction, with supplemented fictional stories to help flesh out the evidence. I was a little unsure about how this book was marketed at first, but it made much more sense once I was into the main body of the book.

Thank you so much to Emily Hauser, NetGalley and the publisher Double Day & Random House UK for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book ahead of its release.