A review by nathanaracena
Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths by Helen Morales

4.0

A well researched and written study of the subversive power of ancient myths. Whilst I’ve loved Greek, Roman and Nordic myths all my life, it’s never been quite so evident how these have shaped modern day thinking until reading this. I’ve known how the words and phrases of modern language have derived from these tales, but quite how the impact of the actions of their “heroes” has shaped our culture has always escaped me. I’ve read many chapters of rape, degeneration and more and never really paused to think about the impact of this on not only women, but sexualities, dieting, homophobia and race. Morales doesn’t point fingers at myths and blame them however, but instead looks at how we can educate and learn from myths instead. She doesn’t look to hide and cower from our history but instead how we can use the positive messages from them to better our culture.