“Filmed inside the …it is an exhilarating six minutes whose stunning images and sharp juxtapositions of ancient and modern reflect upon race, art, and resistance,” writes Morales. The author argues that Beyoncé’s music video “APESHIT” actively challenges assumptions about whiteness and beauty inscribed in the marbled form of the Venus de Milo.

Later in the book, Morales shows how modern renderings of old myths resist not only misogyny, but racism and transphobia. Furthermore, as suggested in the story of Uranus’ abusive treatment of Gaia, men are “meant” to dominate both women and the Earth. By taking Hippocratic quotations-e.g., “extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases”-out of context, patriarchal culture disciplines (primarily female) bodies into submission to often unattainable standards of beauty. A less violent but no less harmful way that patriarchy controls women is through the imperative to diet.

Just as Greek mythology celebrated the killing of women warriors, so too does modern society continue to condone acts of violence toward women, especially those who exercise their personal autonomy. The author opens by discussing the story of the Amazons in relation to a male undergraduate who killed two female students (and four others) as revenge for years of sexual rejection. Morales, the author of Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction, reinterprets old myths with an eye to “recognizing entrenched cultural patterns,” especially where the treatment of girls and women, the environment, and minorities are concerned. A professor of Hellenic studies offers a feminist take on major myths from antiquity.Īncient Greek myths are significant parts of the narratives that undergird Western democracy and culture.

Antigone rising by helen morales