The works of Hesiod, Works and Days and Theogony, and Genesis both explains the origin of the first woman and her role on Earth. However, they differ in the events leading up to the creation of woman as well as how she influenced and changed mankind. In both of the works of Hesiod and Genesis, the first woman is explained to be created after man. However, the reason for her creation differs. When Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind, Hesiod explains that the first woman, Pandora, was created by Zeus as a punishment for mankind to balance out the good: “Iapetos’ boy…I bet you’re glad you stole fire and outfoxed me. But things will go hard for you and for humans after this. I’m going to give Evil exchange
In Hesiod’s account, the human race “had lived off the land without any trouble, no hard work, No sickness or pain that the Fates give to men” (Works and Days, line 112-113). However, when Epimetheus accepted Zeus’ present, Pandora, as his wife and she “took the lid off the big jar with her hands and scattered all the miseries that spell sorrow for men. Only Hope was left there in the unbreakable container, Stuck under the lip of the jar, and couldn’t fly out: The woman clamped the lid back on the jar first” (Works and Days, line 115-119). Hesiod blamed Pandora for her curiosity that let misery and sufferings escape, as well as her weakness as a woman that prevent the only good thing in the jar, Hope, from escaping. However, this was all set up by Zeus as a punishment. He made Pandora to be “irresistible to men” (Theogony 593); if a man happened to fall for her, she will be surviving from his hard work while staying inside the house all day: “The bees work every day until the sun goes down, Busy all day long making pale honeycombs, While the drones stay inside...Stuffing their stomachs with the work of others” (Theogony, line 600-603). However, if the man was able to resist the women’s charm, he will end up alone with no children: “Whoever escapes marriage and women’s harm, comes to deadly old age/ Without any son to
In Hesiod’s Theogony, the tensions within a family seem to be an intensified version of issues that are relatable to people. The results of these tensions are also dramatic and have a tendency to have a fulfillment of the fears that were causing the tensions as a result. This implies that there is a natural cycle of destruction between father and son. Tension seems to arise with the implication of the woman’s creative nature juxtaposed to the destructive nature of her husband.
...s talk and the two sisters become awfully jealous of her. After they try to find out the truth of Psyche and her husband, they leave with some jewels. The night after the two sisters leave, Psyche can’t sleep at night and order her servants to bring her a lamp. She sneaks into her husband’s room, to find a beautiful creature with great, white folded, feathered wings. He is the son of Aphrodite’s, Eros – she says. As she quietly moves away, her oil lamp drops oil on Eros burning him and waking him up. He explains to Psyche that “mortals and gods are forbidden to marry” (p.137) that’s why she couldn’t see him and now he must go away from her. In this play we see that Pandora should’ve listened to her husband, Eros, and it caused herself bad in not listening to Eros, but we see that things can work out after something terrible occurs, such as the birth of a child.
Based on the readings, I conclude that Hesiod has intended his audience to regard elpis as a curse rather than a blessing. First of all, when Zeus is over taken by his anger with Prometheus after Prometheus makes an ill hearted attempt to fool Zeus at Mykone in regards to which food to choose. After Zeus discovered this trickery, he and the other gods put ingredients together to create a woman called Pandora. Pandora is a ‘gift’ to Epimetheus. The poem writes “Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men,” (Hesiod, Works and Days, 85-90).
Women were just there to serve their husbands in anyway the men wanted. The first example was in the second creation story God only created man and then realized he needed a helper and then he created a woman with a rib from the man (2). It is saying that women were only really created to help and support men, also its implying that the man helped make the women so he gets control over her. In Genesis 3:16 God says to eve, “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you,” she ate from the tree so he is punishing her (3). Women were just objects for the men to control, but then in the first creation story God created men and women equally (1). He created them together and to worship the land and populate it. So the two creation stories contradict each other because one the women are equal and in the other story they are completely separate. It gives two different outlooks on the way women were portrayed, but throughout the story they are portrayed more like the second creation story than the
Myths reveal to us the experiences of women living in the patriarchal society and we gain the symbol value accorded to women and we came to realize what the term "Woman" meant to the ancient Greek man.
A myth is a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. Each civilization has its myths about the creation of the world and its human race. Most speak of “gods” who perform feats far beyond that of humankind. Most are legends passed down through oral tradition, and embellished along the way. The book of Genesis is one of the most significant books in the Bible and is sacred scripture for Jews, Samaritans, and Christians. The Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish, is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian worldview. Hesiod’s Theogony is a poem describing the origins and genealogies of
In Hesiod’s version, Zeus created Pandora as a punishment to man and illustrated her as an evil, deceitful and supposed curse on mankind, “Evil conspirators. And he added another evil to offset the good...she was a real pain for human beings” (Hesiod, 149-164) On the contrary women in Ovid’s tale were treated as companions who worked together for the greater good, as depicted by the myth of Pyrrha and Deucalion, “Then, side by side, they went without delay to seek the waters of Cephisus’ stream.” (Ovid, 17) Deucalion and Pyrrha are portrayed to be righteous and true devotes of the Olympian gods and hence given the responsibility of repopulating earth. Ovid demonstrates that the humans in this myth portray the role of a god, where they repopulate Earth with righteous humans, thus creating order in the universe again. He portrays their role as a vital component in this occurrence as without their diligence and morals—this act would not have been possible. Thus, establishing the human-centered concept of his
The stories about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Women were slaves, concubines, and child bearers; they were also wives, matriarchs, and prophets. Although, some women had less important titles than others each served a purpose. Even if the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates the love and dedication women had for Him. The scriptures describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.
Hesiod tells the story of how the curse of Pandora came to be in his writing. In his two works Hesiod, Works and Days and Hesiod, Theogony that contain the story of Pandora are both writing in a slightly different perspective. However, at the end both have the same meaning to them. That Zeus created women as a punishment for men. In developing this meaning in both poems Hesiod uses a few different things in each story as oppose to telling the same story for both. Hesiod, Works and Days and Hesiod Theogony have the same meaning and most of the same plot but different in some aspects.
Hesiod. "Works and Days." Theogony and Works and Days. Trans. Catherine Schlegel and Henry Weinfield. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2006. 57-83. Print.
The very creation of women was set as a punishment to man because Prometheus, son of Iapetos, tried to trick Zeus into eating bones and then, with the tube of a fennel, steals fire to give to mankind. Zeus then proclaimed, "To set against the fire I shall give them an affliction in which they will all delight as they embrace their own misfortune." Out of Zeus' anger came Pandora, the first woman. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold women from the earth and water, Athene to dress and adorn her, Temptation to give her necklaces of gold, and Hermes to implant a bitch's mind and a thief's temper. Hesiod describes women as a "precipitous trap, more than mankind can manage." Hesiod states, "even so as a bane for mortal men has high-thundering Zeus created women, conspirators in causing difficulty." And thus the first woman was named Pandora, Allgift,-"a calamity for men who live by bread." And so Pandora and all the evils of the world, except Hope, were released into the world by a punishing Zeus. Hesiod explains how formerly the tribes of men lived "remote from ills, without harsh toil and the grievous sickness that are deadly to men." From Pandora descended the female sex, "a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands- no fit partners for accursed Poverty, but only for Plenty." An analogy is then used to compare women to drones who, according to Hesiod, feed off hard-working bees all day. Hesiod immed...
In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Muses, which are the nine singing goddesses who he came across one day while taking care of his lambs, serve as a guide to the poet’s genealogy and organization of the origins of the gods by inspiring him to write down the lineage as they sing it. Using their angelic voices, the Muses presented Hesiod with the history of the cosmos in order. Thus, inspiring him to become a poet; he made this major change in his life and that resulted in Theogony, a chronological poem that consists of short life lessons, punishments, and roots of many Greek gods and goddesses. In this poem, Hesiod described these accounts as songs, when in fact, they were long verbal stories of how the gods of Olympus came to be. The sole purpose of
Mortal females cause struggles among men and are portrayed as wicked in Greek Mythology. In the story of How the World and Mankind Were Created, the Father of Men and of the Gods, Zeus, swears to get revenge upon mankind because of the poor sacrifices made to the altars. Therefore, he “[makes] a great evil for men, a sweet and lovely thing to look upon… they [call] her Pandora… the first woman… who are an evil to men, with a nature to do evil… is the source of all misfortu...
Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The nymph Calypso enslaves Odysseus for many years. Odysseus desires to reach home and his wife Penelope. It is the goddess Athena who sets the action of The Odyssey rolling; she also guides and orchestrates everything to Odysseus’ good. Women in The Odyssey are divided into two classes: seductresses and helpmeets. By doing so, Homer demonstrates that women have the power to either hinder of help men. Only one woman is able to successfully combine elements of both classes: Penelope. She serves as a role model of virtue and craftiness. All the other women are compared to and contrasted with Penelope.
The books of the Old Testament, and variations, are recognized by the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. Each paint women as the temptress responsible for the mistakes of men. Women were the cause of the first punishment given to mankind. Eve persuaded Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, from the tree of knowledge. For this act, inspired by woman, mankind was forever punished and expelled from paradise.