Medusa in the Mirror: What Myths Tell Us About Who We Are
A scintillating exploration of mythological figures and their modern reinventions
Myths are purportedly timeless; they contain universal meanings, which is one of the reasons they still appeal to us. But the opposite is also true: myths are extremely time-bound. Any storyteller can appropriate them and adapt them for their own purposes. In recent years, there has been a huge turnaround in how mythical figures are presented: popular films and novels about them are everywhere. Feminist retellings, created as a counterculture phenomenon, are so successful that they’ve almost become a cliché.
Why is this and why is it happening now? And what can we learn from it about antiquity and ourselves? As she explores various mythological characters and their modern transformations, Jacqueline Klooster invites readers to look into an often surprising mirror. Besides reflections on different ways of retelling and the motives of the revisionists, she places the new stories in context, and compares and contrasts them with earlier adaptations and with the originals themselves, revealing her personal fascinations along the way.
Helen, Medusa, Antigone, Medea, Persephone are treated, but also male figures such as Achilles and Apollo. Klooster examines works by well-known literary authors like Toni Morrison, Marguerite Yourcenar and Margaret Atwood, but also more popular books (think Fifty Shades of Grey and the Percy Jackson series), Tiktok trends (Medusa tattoos) and films (Barbie, Gone Girl, Troy). ‘Reading is rewriting,’ she claims. ‘Every story potentially contains gaps, questions, perspectives that remain undeveloped, invitations to think, feel and invent further.’ This essential guide decodes why Medusa has become a #MeToo icon and Persephone a romance heroine – and what it means for literature and society.
Revisionist retellings of classical myths are a strong trend in books, films/series and musicals. On fan fiction sites like Archive of our own thousands of fan writers lend classical figures new guises and create new plots
The definitive analysis of one of culture’s hottest trends: why classical myths are being rewritten by and for women, and how these stories reveal our deepest contemporary anxieties about power, identity, and voice.
A blend of scholarly expertise with accessible, personal writing, for fans of Nathalie Haynes, Stephen Fry and Hadestown.
Jacqueline Klooster (b. 1976) was assistant professor of Ancient Greek literature at the University of Groningen and has been appointed as Full Professor of Ancient Greek in October 2025 at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. She previously published, among others, Classical Literature (AUP, 2017) and was one of the editors of Muze, vertel (Muse, tell, 2023).