Mythica is a non-fiction book that explores the real women behind the myths in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Instead of retelling the stories, Hauser uses history, archaeology, and science to show how these women might have lived in the Bronze Age. The book is well-researched and full of interesting facts. It covers famous figures like Helen of Troy, Circe, and Penelope, but also lesser-known women whose stories were often ignored. Hauser’s writing is thoughtful and detailed, and she clearly knows her subject.

However, I found it a bit heavy at times. Some chapters felt long, and the amount of information could be overwhelming. It’s not a light read, and I struggled to stay engaged throughout.

Overall, Mythica is a clever and important book, but it didn’t fully hold my attention. I appreciated the fresh perspective, but I wish it had been a bit more accessible and lively.

A masterpiece of non-fiction
—
Possibly my non-fiction book of the year, Hauser delves into the origins of the women in the Odyssey and the Iliad, names we might know but who are silent in the stories themselves: Helen, famed for her beauty; Cassandra, the unheeded prophet; Circe, the enchantress, and others. By looking at these women and others like them in the unique and remarkable contemporaneous records, other tales and writings, images and objects, Hauser gives the women their voices, their places in history (if any) and the strangenesses and familiarity of their times.

This passionate book seeks to add to the sum of human knowledge of the Bronze Age in Greece, by expanding the tales of warriors, kings and gods with the stories of Amazons, queens and goddesses, the mothers and daughters who did not travel of their own free will yet whose adventures made as much impact on the civilisations around them. Combining the scientific, the historical and the expertly speculative, the book flows and lifts, recedes and surges, a masterpiece of non-fiction.

I have to be honest here. Myrica by Emily Hauser was not the book I expected. I went into it anticipating more of a fictional narrative, and while it certainly contains elements of that, I found it leaned heavily into factual or academic territory more than I'd anticipated. This made it a bit heavy for me, making it a challenging read at times. For this reason alone I haven't finished reading it. I think, given a different head space, at another time, I'll probably enjoy it more.

Thank you to Emily Hauser, Transworld Publishers Ltd / Penguin Random House /Doubleday and NetGalley for this ARC.

I will hold my hands up and say this is not what I was expecting and I think that ruined my enjoyment of the book. I thought it was about the women in Homer's poems and Hauser would explore their role and give their background. Instead, Hauser uses real life evidence to show the similarities between Homer's women and real life women. A lot of the evidence centred around archaeological digs, aDNA, DNA and other historical artefacts.
For me it was too heavy and I really did not enjoy it. There were moments that captured my interest but it just was not for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for an advance copy.

The history nerd and the English Lit grad personalities in me really combined in this to it's most pretentious level.

The exploration of the women in Homer's works and looking at the world in which they lived and existed is exactly the kind of thing I love to learn about and it adds much needed context to the famous works.

Emily Hauser wrote this beautifully, with care and consideration, and with so much knowledge.

Immediately recommended it to my friends who love ancient history, especially Roman and Greek histories.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC!

IMythica is informative and educational, whilst being easy to read. The writing is clear & draws the reader in. I have both a hard copy and the audiobook, both of which I recommend.

Mythica absolutely swept me away. Emily Hauser has taken the threads of ancient mythology and woven them into something fresh, fierce, and completely captivating. From the first page, I could feel how much care and imagination had gone into this story, and I was hooked.

What I loved most was how the book reclaims these familiar myths and gives them real emotional weight. The women in this story aren’t just side characters or tragic footnotes — they’re powerful, complex, and unforgettable. Hauser brings a deep empathy to their voices, and that made the whole experience feel both grounded and mythic at the same time.

The worldbuilding is lush without being overwhelming, and the pace struck a great balance between introspective moments and high-stakes drama. It had that rare mix of being both epic and deeply personal, which is exactly what I want in a myth retelling.

If you're a fan of Madeline Miller or Natalie Haynes, or just love stories that bring new light to old legends, Mythica is absolutely worth your time. It's rich, immersive, and full of heart.

Mythica by Emily Hauser is a breathtaking and eye-opening re-examination of ancient texts through a refreshingly modern, scientific, and feminist lens.

Hauser brilliantly deconstructs centuries of biased historical interpretation, revealing the forgotten or misrepresented stories of women from the Iliad and Odyssey—and, crucially, from real life. Each chapter seamlessly blends gripping short fiction with archaeological and scientific analysis, making complex discoveries like aDNA testing both accessible and fascinating. I found myself constantly googling and learning more. Hauser’s ability to link myth, history, and science makes this an essential read for anyone interested in ancient history, feminism, or simply powerful storytelling. An unforgettable, enlightening book—I couldn’t recommend it more.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Doubleday for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

TW: rape, sexual violence, slavery, misogyny, violence, death, child death

I have genuinely been so excited to read this book. ‘Mythica’ is nonfiction and focuses on the long ignored women of Greek mythology, particularly the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ by Homer, using scientific techniques (including DNA) and reinterpretations of ancient texts to bring a new side to these stories. I adore the way that Emily Hauser weaves together history and myth, drawing on the lives of the extraordinary and ordinary women documented through archaeology digs. ‘Mythica’ isn’t afraid to go to dark places, whether through the slavery of Chryseis and Briseis or the terrible acts that Aphrodite, Athena and Hera must do to survive in a male god dominated world. I really loved the focus that characters like Andromache and Penthesilea got and how much I learned about different cultures from this book. You don’t need to know a lot about Greek mythology or history to read ‘Mythica’ and I think it’s the perfect way to learn more about the subject.

Throughout the centuries, predominantly male historians and archeologists have placed contemporary stereotypes and agendas onto their Bronze Age findings, sometimes seeing simply what they wanted to see. These historical interpretations have shaped our image of this ancient time period, now based on 'out of date' findings, and it turns out that revisiting the ancient texts through a new lens thanks to scientific advances in analyses throws a lot of it into question.

That's exactly what Emily Hauser does in Mythica, this groundbreaking non-fiction in which she masterfully deconstructs the bias, building blocks of evidence to new and unbiased findings. Set out into chapters linked to women from both The Iliad and The Odyssey, Emily powerfully combines a short piece of fiction with an archaeological or other scientific discovery and how this links to the women of the ancient texts and real women of the time. It's easy to follow yet absolutely full of fascinating and thought-provoking information - I went down MANY google rabbit-holes. It's maddening and depressing at times how the oppression of women seems to be a circle but I'm so glad we have wonderful and inspiring people like Emily Hauser bringing women to the forefront. After recently learning more about Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology I was especially intrigued by the links Emily makes to their deities.

One especially captivating chapter shows how an advance in aDNA testing is now allowing us to identify the biological sex of ancient remains: lo and behold many of those thought to be men due to gender-binary assumptions based on their grave goods (swords and other weapons) are actually turning out to be women. This goes both ways - the remains of the 'Griffin Warrior' discovered in a Bronze Age shaft tomb was labelled as a 'dandy' by The New York Times for being buried with jewellery, combs and a mirror. These are clear examples of modern stereotypes being used to interpret ancient findings and as Emily reminds us, ‘If we want to aim for more equality now, then we need to keep interacting with and interrogating the tales that have been told about the past based on the new evidence being unearthed, in order to understand the processes of oppression and exclusion that have taken place across the centuries, and retrieve the lost or silenced voices that history forgot.

This is just a taste of what Mythica has to offer and I really do urge to you to read it for yourself. I was reading The Iliad for the first time whilst reading this and it added a whole new level!

Thank you to Emily Hauser, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers | Doubleday, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Mythica is a thoughtful reexamination of women written by Homer. Well-researched and well-written, Mythica is an interesting and engaging read.

Thanks to net galley and the publishers for a free ecopy in exchange for a review. This is mainly a non fiction book giving female characters from fiction a voice. The book delves into the works of Homers the odyssey and Iliad to find the hidden voices and females that play such an important role but are virtually wiped from history. We hear from many including Helen, Penelope, Briseis and Circe as well as many more.
It really does give a behind the scenes historical look at the facts behind the Greek myths.
It’s based on real fact and finds from archeological digs. Interesting, well researched and written I enjoyed reading this. I will be recommending

I love to read a non-fiction every now and then, and this book felt like it was written for me - women in the world of ancient Greece, specifically delving into the unwritten stories of those from the world of Homer. As a Classics student, I read huge chunks of the Iliad and the Odyssey in the original language - or at least, in the way it was written down, whenever and by whomever that might have been.

I wish this book had existed when I was studying these texts at school and uni. I always felt when reading them that something was missing, and this makes it obvious - women who aren't just plot devices, flat characters or wrathful goddesses. I also kind of wish I had done my dissertation on this topic - the hidden women of the ancient world and what life was really like for them. Although my disseration topic, an ancient mystery cult, did pop up in this book!

I had a variety of teachers at school and uni, but there are a couple who I would love to recommend this to (I am, in fact, friends with one on Facebook and may do so!).

Other reviewers have mentioned the obvious with the marketing of this book - the blurb is somewhat misselling it to people with immediate mentions of Madeline Miller's Circe and other similar novels. As I've said, it's a non-fiction which delves into the evidence, from reading between the lines of ancient texts, old and contemporary archaeological finds and even DNA studies, to uncover the unspoken and unwritten reality of Homer's lesser mentioned sex.

My only criticism is that, while it was engaging, it wasn't the quickest or easiest read. It didn't read like a dusty old tome from the research libraries of my uni days, but I also struggled to sit down and read it like I would another book for more than an hour or so at a time, it needed to be read in chunks.

Mythica by Dr Emily Hauser

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘Why be a half-finished poem in some forgotten poets story, when one can be an Odyssey in and of herself?’

Mythica is an absolute powerhouse of a book. Each chapter takes you on a rollercoaster of emotion through history and mythology. Each chapter is thematic and links a piece of Greek mythology into the narrative, while bringing in what we have discovered about life at that time. This is something that Emily does exceptionally - bringing the myths to life, seamlessly weaving them with historical discoveries. Emily has a seamless and warm way of writing, drawing you in and making you forget you are reading a non-fiction book - I love to lose myself in a book and this is something I can find difficult with non-fiction. Not here - this book drew me in and held me gripped from beginning to end.

Each chapter left an impact, from the heartbreaking Thetis chapter on motherhood, to the experience of Eurycleia as she ages as a handmaid in a mans world, the ignored Cassandra, the isolated Calypso, the powerful Circe and the fearsome Amazon warrior Pentheselia (‘and then the Amazon came indeed’….) amongst many more.

You can tell Mythica has been a labour of love for Emily and it really shines through in this book - the attention to detail and research is blindingly obvious and you feel her passion through her written words. I’ve had to take my time with this one as it is so riveting that when I’m reading at night exhausted I’ve had to put the book aside as I didn’t want to miss a single bit of information.

‘Not all women get to be remembered’. This is something Mythica aims to go some way towards correcting in the tales of the women of Homer and the ordinary women history have forgotten along the way.

An absolute must read for anyone interested in mythology and women’s voices and definitely one to get a physical copy of to use a reference - there is a phenomenal glossary and reference list in the back to make your TBR rival the lofty heights of Mt Olympus!

'In this book, it's the women who are going to take us on a journey through the Iliad and the Odyssey and across the splendid tumultuous world of the late Bronze Age'.

If you love Greek Classics, mythology, or ancient history, but more importantly, women's history, then you're sure to devour this book. Using some of the key women portrayed in the two, iconic classic tales, the Iliad and the Odyssey, as a starting point, Emily Hauser re-focuses our lens to examine the real women behind characters. She hasn't just used her academic knowledge or desktop research to piece together hypotheses but has augmented written words with the latest in DNA testing and modern archaeological scholarship to present a well-rounded notion of just who these women might have been. It's the mothers, the warriors, the slaves, and the queens. It's all women from the late Bronze Age that are touched upon. Through her book, she brings a more balanced view to the very masculine world, of that age, that has always previously been presented.

You'll need to take your time with this book as it is packed with information and substantiation; each chapter feels like its own story. Once you've completed it though, you will come out with a very different view of the types of women, their roles, their lives, their regard, than you had previously.

'There's always more to find. And that's worth waiting for'.

"So, Muse: tell me about a woman."

This book was perfect for me. I studied Ancient History at university and fell in love with it. However, as I learnt more, I realised there was something missing. Before learning about Classics and history in depth, I had never realised that there was so much history about men and their conquests, myths, beliefs and lives but so little regarding women. We are aware of myths and poetry (mainly written by men, but perhaps repeated orally by women) about queens, witches and goddesses; but there is so little history on the everyday lives of women.

Emily Hauser recognises this fault in history and tries to rectify it in this book. She looks at Homer's portrayal of women and compares the prose to tangible archaeological evidence through a feminist lens.

I found that her writing was deeply informative and managed to convey her views without the book becoming too dense or tedious. She also relayed findings from technical studies (such as radiocarbon dating and finding out what people ate from their teeth) and explained the science of it succinctly so that the layman could easily understand.

However, a lot of the time I thought Hauser was going off on an (interesting) tangent, but it always looped back to the first point she made. I found that she relayed information very well and argued her points so expertly I couldn't help but read every chapter slowly and methodically.

I feel, along with Hauser herself, that every subject she talked about regarding these silenced women mattered immensely and that it is important to give them their voice once again. Furthermore, she named other female authors and their novels that have also explored and argued for the same thing: these silenced women must be heard. I also feel that her championing other women is uplifting and inspiring, in a world that is so selfish and competitive. I believe that it's important to be inspired for and advocate for other women, because the world would have us do the opposite in order to have the patriarchal annotations of history perpetuated.

In this vein, I feel that Hauser has challenged the historical narrative paradigm that is created and upheld by men who have left out important things that they believed did not matter.

Overall, I believe this was a well-written and informative book that has a place in my heart, forever.

If you enjoy reading mythic retellings, or love books like Natalie Haynes' Divine Might, then Mythica is a must-read. It's filled with tantilising glimpses into the ancient past, uncovering untold stories from burial grounds to shipwrecks, and bringing history to life through ancient literature.

Each chapter focuses on a different female character from epic, used as a spring board into a wide variety of themes and topics.

Mythica is an exciting and enjoyable insight into the lives of ancient women, and the mark they have made in epic and beyond.

This was a really interesting exploration about what archeological and other very clever scientific interventions have told us about the real ancient world that inspired the Odyssey.

Emily Hauser cleverly blends new discoveries and reinterpretation of evidence to bring the classical world to live.

I started reading this via kindle and switched to Audible which is narrated by the author and is very good.

A very insightful and thought provoking read.

If one reads the Iliad or the Odyssey then one comes to realise that the only voices heard are those of the men. The women of the Bronze Age are mainly hidden. In this book Hauser takes the characters of a number of named women in Homeric writing and uses them as a starting point to explore the lives of women, and indeed society, at this time. It is a book with huge scope and it delves into history and science so interchangeably that it is impossible to distinguish. I found it completely fascinating and Hauser's writing is passionate and knowledgeable.

On the whole, Mythica was a fascinating dive into what may be the truth behind the myths of The Iliad and The Odyssey as it applies, mainly, to the women mentioned in those epic poems. Though there's a great deal on the men and gods/goddesses, as well. Possible locations, lifestyles, ways of life of these ancient people based on archaeological and scientific finds in and around what is thought to be Troy, the Greek islands and well beyond. The research and discoveries made is quite simply mind-blowing. All the fact-based information in this book paints a vivid picture of this bygone time and its people. Utterly extraordinary that we could know so much and well done knitting it all together in this text.

I marvel at the ancient world and the vast array of stories we have from that time. But I should steer clear of anything hinting at 'feminist' as it gets under my skin. Were women forced into slavery after being conquered? Did they work hard? Were they abused, raped and even murdered? Yes, it was the ancient world and society functioned differently from today. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that women were mentioned as much as they were given these epic poems were crafted by a man, about fighting men and the quest of one man to return to his wife and son? Maybe the women of that time were content in the societal confines of their community and the well defined rules required to belong? Viewing history through the skewed lens of today and lecturing about fast fashion and trans issues from our lofty perch of the 21st century doesn't serve anyone. It may even create faults in our understanding of the past which so many have worked so hard to acquire. Thoughts for another day, perhaps. Regardless, this is a fascinating read clarifying the mystery of the ancient Greek/Trojan world and so much more. I highly recommend it.