Pandora's Senses

“A provocative and well-supported reading of a familiar myth and its hidden metamorphoses. Elegantly written, this daring book will make an important contribution not only to the study of classics and mythology but also to interpretations of women’s roles in literature and cultural history.” —David Konstan, John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition at Brown University and the author of The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks.“In this exhilarating and far-ranging study Vered Lev Kenaan takes the lid off Pandora as mythical figuration of primal plexity. First textualized by Hesiod with repercussions throughout the cultures of Antiquity, not least in Plato’s and others’ rough hands, Pandoran femininity will collide with treacherous Ovid’s lascivious imagination, releasing ever more irresistible mystique and mystery. Lev Kenaan brings to life a powerful vision of the poetics of literature figured as feminine.” —John Henderson, University of Cambridge, editor and translator of Asinaria.

Vered Lev Kenaan is senior lecturer of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of Haifa.