The Pandora Myth In Hesiod's Theogony

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According to Hesiod in the Works and Days, the king of the gods Zeus has the first woman created in response to Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus to give to men. Hephaestus creates the first woman out of earth and water. Hesiod says that the first woman’s name is Pandora because each god and goddess “who dwelt on Olympus each gave a gift, a plague for men” (Hesiod). The Pandora myth is misogynistic because the plagues given to man are Pandora’s fault. Hesiod describes the gift present to Epimetheus as an evil thing that will harm men. As the myth progresses, he describes Pandora releasing sorrow, illness, and mischief upon men with her own hands. The myth emphasizes that Pandora intentionally could not hold the jar open before hope could escape …show more content…

One pile consisting of the inner parts stuffed with flesh, while the other pile consisting of bones covered in fat. He made Zeus chose between the piles and Zeus chose the pile with the bones covered in fat. The outcome of Prometheus’s trick was mischief against men in the form of a woman. In the Theogony (Reader I.3), Hesiod gives the first woman the name “beautiful evil” (Hesiod). Two gods, Athena and Limping God, teamed up to create woman. Hesiod refers to this woman as a “beautiful evil” because she will bring happiness as well as sorrow to men through the race of women. Hesiod explains that men cannot avoid nor escape from this evil because those who interact and have children with her will always have grief in his heart, and those who try to avoid her will die and their possessions divided among woman. The god Epimetheus plays the role of the fool who first takes the first woman in both I.4 and I.3. In the Theogony (Reader I.3), the first woman brings evil to men by giving way to the race of women which men cannot escape. Evil will affect men in life and death as their children will be evil, and their hearts filled with grief and when they die their possessions divided among

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