Comparing Women In Genesis And Pandora's Box

Sodanie Oum
Philosophy P.6

Portrayal of Women in Genesis and Pandora's Box
We always talk about the creation of the earth itself and how it all started with men, but let's talk about the women for once. In Pandora's Box, it says that the first woman, Pandora, a beautiful woman made from clay, was gifted to Epimetheus. Which Zeus names as “his own terrible gift to mankind”. Along with Pandora, Epimetheus received a box, in which he was warned not to let anyone, especially Pandora, open. After a seemingly perfect domestic life, Pandora's’ curiosity/desire got too strong and she opened the box. Then, outcome; want, suffering, hunger, thirst, jealousy, and mistrust. All evils were let out, except for one thing, hope, the only good thing, and

thus mankind continued. Then in Genesis, Adam, who was the first man, needed a companion, then from his rib, Eve, the first woman was created. God told both of them not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. But soon a servant came along and persuaded Eve to eat the fruit. Then, Eve persuaded Adam. Then God found out and punished them both, Eve (who represented women) with painful childbirth and secondary authority to her husband and punished Adam (who represented men) with labor in order to survive and the ability of death. (NOT THAT I AGREE but) After reading both texts, I can conclude that both, portray women as troublesome and secondary to men.

In both texts, women were created and chaos, followed soon after.

Therefore implying women are troublesome. In Genesis, Eve “took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate [Genesis 2]”. Which tells us, Eve explicitly ate the fruit, even when God told her not to, just because a snake told her so. Not only that, she also persuaded Adam to eat the fruit. And got BOTH of them in trouble. Then in Pandora’s Box, “he told her numerous times not to touch the box, but each time her desire to know got stronger [Pandora’s Box 1]” and then “one night broke the seal and raised the kid [Pandora’s Box 2]” and “all evils had already been let out before she could close it [Pandora's Box 2]”. (Technically it's Zeus’s fault for creating the her and the box but..) This is basically trying to say that if women were never created, mankind would've never had any evils in the first

place.

Along with saying women are troublesome, both texts also say that women are secondary to men.

In Genesis, Eve was literally made out of Adam’s rib and made specifically for Adam. Therefore implying women are secondary to men. Then God says “your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you [Genesis 2]”. Which says it for itself. Then in Pandora's Box, Pandora, was Zeus’s “own terrible gift to mankind [Pandora’s Box 1]”. Which says women were gifts to men, not quite in a flattering way. Therefore also implying that, men own women. Pandora's Box also says women are secondary by getting Zeus to say “take her and she will tend to you and care for you [Pandora’s Box 1]”. Saying that women were made to specifically tend to men

(ugh).

So, to sum it up, both “Pandora's Box” and “Genesis” portray women as troublesome/chaotic and most of all secondary to men. But now in the modern day, hopefully we've moved on from those ideas because those ideas are sexist and misogynic. But sadly there are still people that think men are superior to women and that is highly upsetting. Some ideas of women being secondary are still intact TODAY, things such as paying women 78 cents (or less) to a man's dollar FOR DOING THE SAME JOB (and POC get paid even less than that!!).