Her Kind

Book excerpt: Medea betrayed her father and left her homeland for the love of Jason. Then when he abandoned her, she murdered her children. But did she? And what of Clytemnestra, the conniving adulteress? For ten years she plotted the murder of her husband Agamemnon, King of Mycenae and Conqueror of Troy. How would she have told her story? The Greek myths as we know them were told for men by men. Yet they were the culmination of a long oral tradition in which both men and women shared. Using extant ancient literary sources as her guide, including the works of Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides and Apollodorus, Jane Cahill reconstructs the stories as they might have been told to women by women. These are stories of wronged women, inspired women, determined women, tender women. Medusa tells how it is to know that one look at her face will turn a man to stone, to be hated and feared all the time. Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, confesses her love for the young man who came to save her city from the Sphinx—her son, Oedipus. Each story is accompanied by extensive notes which discuss the ancient sources, explain relevant Greek concepts and customs, and serve as a guide to further reading.