Monstrous Women

Synopsis

A beautifully crafted and poignant comparison of the Gorgon and Medusa to other monstrous female deities in Greek Mythology

Based on many years of research in classical literature, this book explores monstrous women in Greek myth and their entry into popular culture, highlighting the misogynist trope of ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ women.

Ancient Greek myths remain part of us, despite the many differences between their culture and our own. The Greek gods live on in our imagination, no matter how historical agents have tried to dismiss them as frivolous and harmful. Examination of the roots of these beliefs helps to shed light on ongoing prejudices, situate them in a historical context, and defuse them. Recent scholarship has countered traditional myths re-examining and retelling the story of these powerful and angry women, through the lens of twentieth-century women’s rights movements.

Monstrous Women is be based around those mythical women and goddesses who could harm the unwary and punish the guilty. They include, the pre-historic and Cretan Gorgon, the Furies, the Sirens, Hekate and the Witches, Corpse Stealers and Angry Ghosts, Persephone and the terror of Hades.