Greek Myths: A New Retelling, with drawings by Chris Ofili

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My favourite is the story of Arachne’s weaving contest with Athene when the misguided mortal tells Athena, “Explain it to me: the gods make laws for humans, and then refuse to follow those same laws themselves.

Charlotte Higgins reinterprets some of the most enduring stories of all time in this beautifully produced, spellbinding new collection, featuring original artworks by Chris Ofili. To present the women of this world through their hard work - the toil of the loom should not be dismissed as minimal, this is not modern day chilled crafting - and through the stories they tell in the weaving, the space they create whilst doing so and the viewpoints and private experiences they hint at, the voice they create through this work. This is a stunning book complete with illustrations by Chris Ofili, and I highly recommend the hardback because of the artwork. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.Her most recent book Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths (Cape, 2018) was BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Absolutely not, not even as a first-time reader of the myths, since the author manages something that I didn’t ever think it was possible: she makes Greek mythology terribly boring and unengaging. the classical myths are all entwined and so the stories have nice continuity, characters telling of their mother, aunts, and sisters. The book would make a perfect introduction to the entrancing world of Greek myth for any secondary school student.

At the sight of her, the mob fell back--they were blinded, burned, by the deadly, shimmering heat that came from her. uk will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. Theirs' are the hands which are responsible for piecing together the elaborate and imaginative tapestry that exists to make sense of the world.It's a powerful depiction that infuses the myths with creative new artistry and paints the female characters with bolder agency. It asks the reader to think about not only the female perspective on their stories, but their experience of living them. She had no idea what he was saying, but every newly awakened instinct in her body was telling her to get away from him. Inspired by the ancient world’s favourite literary technique of ekphrasis – not only describing a static tableau but telling a story that moves through time via a description of an artwork – she uses the personae of her weavers to add psychological depth, emotional clout and sometimes philosophical profundity to dozens of embedded narratives. The premise of the book is that each chapter is one woman, who is within the myths, weaving a tapestry telling the stories of those who went before her, each chapter finishing with the myth of the weaver herself.

She has served as a judge for the Art Fund museums prize, the Contemporary Art Society award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society awards. Looking down from Olympus, Aphrodite smiled to herself, then shrugged, and started to comb out her long, shining hair. The myths themselves are extremely easy to read, and while the chapter title may focus on one particular character, the stories follow the characters all the way down their family trees so that you get a much clearer idea of just how interconnected they all are with each other. Circe weaves and sees so many of the women who were tossed aside by men, women like her niece Medea and Ariadne. Again, it was literally just a retelling of LOADS of different myths randomly bundled up into one book.In this spellbinding new collection, Charlotte Higgins reinterprets some of Greek mythology’s most enduring stories.