Natalie Haynes on Medusa

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the esteemed classicist, mythologist, comedian, writer and broadcaster, Natalie Haynes! The author of eight books, three non-fiction and five fiction, Haynes is hailed for her retellings of ancient myths, and the story of the Trojan War from a female point of view in her highly acclaimed A Thousand Ships, which was shortlisted for the women’s prize. Her first book, The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, showed us what the ancient world has to offer us now, and other books, such as Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, is an important book that centres the women at the heart of these ancient stories. Haynes regulars writers for the Guardian, contributes to BBC Radio 4, and is the host of the BBC podcast series, Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics, a witty and incredibly informative series that charts the stories of poets like Sappho, as well as goddesses, mortals, monsters and more, for the ancient world, while also making them extremely accessible and enjoyable for classicists and non-classicists. But, the reason why we are talking with Haynes today is because she is also the author of a fantastic book, Stone Blind, which retells the story of the gorgon Medusa, who, originally in mythology, was cursed by Athena who turned her hair into snakes and gave her the power to turn everything she looked into to stone, and who was then decapitated and killed by the hero Perseus. But Haynes looks at this story again, from a different and more sympathetic point of view, exposing the way stories have been passed down to us and for me, the importance of questioning traditions. And that is why I couldn’t be more excited to be zooming in on this mythical creature today, thinking about how she has been represented and reinterpreted, in addition to the myths behind monsters…! Natalie's books: https://www.waterstones.com/author/natalie-haynes/450500 Natalie's podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077x8pc More info: https://nataliehaynes.com/ MEDUSA IMAGES: Cellini in Florence square: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_with_the_Head_of_Medusa Giordano in National Gallery: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/luca-giordano-perseus-turning-phineas-and-his-followers-to-stone Canova in The Met: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/204758 Jar in The Met: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254523 -- -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm.mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to series 11 of the Great Women Artists podcast.
0:05.0	It's great to have you back and do we have an exciting series for you?
0:09.0	But just before we get to this, I am so excited to say that this series is supported by the Levitt Collection,
0:15.0	a vast and varied art collection of which a major portion is dedicated to works by women artists.
0:21.8	Christian Levitt's support for women in the arts is such that after publishing the major book
0:26.4	Abstract Expressionists, The Women in 2023, he will soon be opening the first private museum
0:32.7	in Europe, entirely dedicated to female artists on the 21st of June, 2004, in Mugin near Cannes in
0:41.1	the south of France. FAM, standing for female artists of the Mujan Museum, will unveil to
0:47.4	the public over 100 works created by more than 80 female artists from around the world. The museum
0:53.9	will exhibit a breathtaking array of incredible artworks from the Leveck Collection,
0:58.2	including paintings, sculptures and photographs by top women artists who have marked the major
1:03.3	artistic movements from the 19th century to the present day.
1:07.0	Opening on the 21st of June, tickets are now on sale at www.famm.com.
1:14.4	And in the meantime, stay tuned at at FAM underscore Mujam.
1:19.0	I hope you enjoy this episode.
1:25.5	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Women Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
1:31.7	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October 2015,
1:37.3	which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old masters.
1:43.4	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram,
1:46.1	this podcast is all about celebrating female artists from a variety of backgrounds and histories.
1:51.9	And I am so excited to be interviewing artists on their career or artists, writers, curators,
1:57.4	or general art lovers on the women artist who means most of them.
	...

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