Divine Might is not a retelling of the Greek and Roman myths or even an in-depth look at the pantheon, but a marvelous female-centric take at the ancient Greek and Roman goddesses, looking particularly at those females who are strong enough to rival their male counterparts. This is not a book for those who know nothing of the myths, but more for those interested in them beyond the usual tellings and retellings.
Natalie Haynes examines Hera, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, Hestia, Athene, the Furies, and the nine Muses. This book connects pop culture to movies (the Disney movie Hercules and Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John), popular music (Lizzo and Cardi B), Playmobil’s Hestia toy, the Juno spacecraft sent to explore Jupiter (the Roman name for Zeus) and, of course, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series to these myths. Haynes posits that Hera is justified in her anger, capriciousness, and maliciousness due to her place in the pantheon: she is a married woman, with a philandering husband, doomed to be invisible; her interference in the lives of those heroes she cares about is limited by Zeus.
Haynes continues her analysis of these female goddesses and their behavior through this fascinating book concluding that Hestia, goddess of the hearth, is the most well-behaved goddess, able to get along with humans and the other gods in the pantheon without difficulty. It is amazingly well-researched and erudite, yet conversational, humorous, and witty. I particularly enjoyed her etymological and lexicological analyses of the way the Green words look on the page and how one word can be trapped between two others, emphasizing the meaning. One of my favorite lines occurs early in the book: “Not only did the ancient Greeks seem to have modelled gods in their mortal image, but they apparently chose their worst selves as the template.” Another great quote: “Avoid the very idea of husbands! The Latin here reads fuge coniugis usum – flee the use of a husband – which I may yet have as a tattoo.”
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Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth (Harper Perennial, January 2, 2024) is available through:
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You can read my reviews of Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships and my reviews of Rick Riordan’s The Trials of Apollo and the Gods of Olympus.
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