The Serpent In Hesiod's Theogony

658 Words2 Pages

Every religion has different and unique stories and myths of how the Earth was started and how human beings were created. The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis describes how the Christian religion believe how humans were created. In contrast, the Greek religion belief of how human is history was started is described in Hesiod’s Theogony. In each story, there is a main character that uses its influence to drive the story along. In Genesis, the role of the Serpent is to antagonize Eve and convince her to take the forbidden fruit. Prometheus deceives Zeus into giving the sacrificed meat to humans and steals fire to give to mankind. Despite their major role in the creation of the human, they also are similar in which they both commit actions that are deemable by the higher power, Zeus and god, as punishable but they both promote the creation of human …show more content…

The serpent is characterized as devious in which he lies to Eve to make her eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Serpent is characterized, “The serpent was more crafty than any wild creature that the Lord God had made….‘Of course you will not die. God knows that as soon as you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like the gods knowing both good and evil’” (Genesis 1-6). It seems the The Serpent is maliciously trying to defy God. In contrast, Premetheus is described as a hero that sacrificed himself for the humans. He disregards Zeus’s power and steals the fire, “But the great son of iapetus deceived him and stole the far-seen light of untiring fire in a hollow narthex, this bit deep in spirit of high thundering Zeus and his heart was angry when he saw the far-seen light of fire among men” (Theogony 565-69). Prometheus’ intentions are honorable in which he shown to help mankind repeatedly. The major difference between the Serpent and Prometheus is that fact that their intentions were completely

Open Document