The Serpent In Hesiod's Theogony

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

beings. They are different in that Prometheus tries to advocate for human creation and The serpent deceives Eve for his own personal motives.
The Serpent and Prometheus are similar in the way that they both are punished for committing crimes that go directly against the high power’s orders. In the Serpent’s case, he deceived Eve into eating the fruit that God told her was not to be eaten. His punishment is explained as, “Then the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this you are accursed more that all the cattle and all the wild creatures. On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of you life’” (Genesis 14-15). This is one similarity between him and Prometheus is that they are both punished for disobeying the higher power's orders. Prometheus begins to deceive Zeus when he tricks him into giving the meat from animal sacrifice to humans and then stealing fire to also give to humans. Zeus’s retribution for Prometheus is depicted as, “He bound devious Prometheus with inescapable harsh bonds, fastened through the middle of a column, and he inflicted on him a long-winged eagle, which ate his immortal liver;but it grew as much in all at night as the long-winged bird would eat all day,” (Theogony 521-25). The stories about the creation of human both feature a character in which disobeys the higher power’s directions and then is penalized.
The major difference between the two characters in the story is their motives.

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

opposite.
The stories how the human history began differ based on different societies and religions. The Christianity and Greek religion describe two different creation stories that feature two characters with similarities and differences. The roles the serpent and Prometheus play are similar in which they were punished because their actions disobeyed or deceived the higher power. However, their roles differ by their intentions and how they are described.