Comparing Evil In Hesiod's Works And Genesis

The Evil God: Comparing the Origin of Evil Between Hesiod’s Works and Genesis

Within Genesis, Works & Days, and Theogony the divine-human relationship is depicted where humans are initially blessed by the gods and live an effortless life until humans challenged them, thus leading to the existence of evil. Unlike Genesis, however, the origin of evil in Theogony is ambiguous because there is no clear indication of who is considered to be “in the right” between Prometheus and Zeus. While it can be argued that Prometheus should be held responsible for bringing evil due to his holier-than-thou attitude towards Zeus, it is important to consider that Zeus holds responsibility for condemning evil to Prometheus and humankind. In addition, Hesiod raises

For instance, Zeus’ divine sense of justice is distorted because he places his ego before impartiality when he declares that he is “going to give [humans] Evil in exchange for fire, their very own Evil to love and embrace” (Hesiod 25). Zeus reveals that he will create evil because of the Prometheus’ actions, compared to evil coming into existence because of Prometheus. This slight distinction is compelling because the concept of evil does not exist until Zeus releases it onto humanity. One can argue that evil exists due to Prometheus and that without his actions, Zeus would not have made the final decision to release “Evil in exchange for fire” (Hesiod 25). However, to refute this, it was not Prometheus’ action of stealing fire back to humankind that initiated evil, rather it was Zeus’ decision to punish Prometheus that led to the creation of evil. Essentially, Prometheus does not go against the gods because Prometheus’ actions were not considered wrong by the gods until after the occurrence. On the other hand, in Genesis, Eve acknowledges that lest she be doomed to die, she should not eat from the forbidden tree; however, she “saw that the tree was good for eating…and she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her man, and he ate” (Alter 12). In this case, Eve’s own actions brought evil to humankind. God did not make the final decision to release evil, rather, evil is released due to how Eve utilized her free will. The commonality between both works is that both Prometheus and Adam and Eve disobey their respective gods. Comparatively, the main distinction lies in the divine-human relationship in both works and the blame that is placed on the introduction of evil. In Genesis, Adam and