Goddesses and Heroines

Xanthe Gresham-Knight is a British performance storyteller. Her clients include the British Museum and the Smithsonian, for whom she creates bespoke performances in response to their collections. She is Lecturer in Drama and Storytelling at the University of East London and the author of two books for children, Thumbelina and Princess and the Pea. Alice Pattullo is an illustrator and printmaker based in East London, with a special interest in folklore. Her work has been exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and her clients include the V&A and the National Trust. She is the illustrator of An Animal ABC, Pride and Prejudice and the Pocket Guide series.

Brings together the tales of thirteen inspirational female characters from ancient myths and legends.Told afresh for a contemporary readership, Goddesses & Heroines brings alive stories from a variety of cultures with palpable energy. We meet the youthful Aphrodite; Hecate, the maths whizz; the heroic Mulan; Oshun, the Nigerian goddess whose foresight sparked a rebellion that freed slaves; and the not-so-fair-y godmother Baba Yaga, whose bone-crunching approach to life will be an inspiration to any power-hungry young thing.A section on the symbols commonly associated with each goddess provides context for each story and familiarizes readers with the symbols to spot her by. The endmatter includes information on how goddesses and heroines achieved their mythic status, how myths are passed on and evolve, and a map of goddesses from around the globe and how they are inter-connected.

APHRODITE, Greece: the girl who created the world ¿ ISIS, Egypt: the emo who flooded the Nile ¿ HECATE, Greece: the whizz who put Zeus into a spin ¿ INANNA, Iraq: the daughter who ruled the world ¿ MULAN, China: the cross-dressing warrior ¿ BABA YAGA, Russia: the notso-fair-y godmother ¿ PARVATI, India: the mother of many names ¿ MAYAHEUL, Mexico: the sleepyhead with infinite energy ¿ NANGSA, Tibet: the teen who was forced to marry ¿ OSUN, Nigeria: the missing link ¿ AMATERASU, Japan: the sister no-one can live without ¿ SIMORG, Iran: the bird who renewed the earth ¿ BRIDE, Ireland: the shapeshifting ancestor