Women In Early Greek Myth

Besides the physical differences, men and women have always been viewed differently according to society. In both the early preconceptions of women in early Greek myth, in particular, Pandora’s Box; and in the idea that women are not only demons, but more often the victims; reveals how women are perceived negatively as evil and dimwitted in both situations.
Women are usually seen as wicked. From the beginning, it was sought that women were created as the evil to man. Hesoid, the Greek poet, details how Zeus created Pandora, the first women, with a shameless, deceitful mind and irresistible beauty out of spite against Prometheus. Therefore, women were distinguished as being liars and tricksters that cause harm to men. Additionally, “whoever

avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age,” and “man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him.” In other words, if you avoid women, you will end up alone. If you marry a women, you will forever be in suffering and have kids that are just as evil as your wife. Fast forward to the Aquinas’ explanations of demons. Women are often sought as being demonic succubi or the one’s possessed by them. Succubi are female demons that have sex with men at night, thus implementing the concept that women are sexual predators and irresistibly manipulative. In both cases, they cause harm by either being themselves or manipulating men for sex.
Moreover, in the origins, women are a blamed for causing evil to the world and seen as ignorantly curious, when Pandora “took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men.” Also, women are viewed as more likely to be possessed because are more vulnerable- spongy, and not very smart, demeaning and assuming their intelligence. There’s a tale of how succubi can impregnate women by using the sperm they collected from the male they slept with, and then transferring it to a human female body in the shape of an incubi, or male sex demon. For both, the intelligences of women are demeaned because Pandora was careless enough to open a box, and human women are easily possessed and vexed.
In both instances, women are judged as malicious and foolish. Men are viewed as good but influenced by the bad of women. The suffering and pain of the world, and sins occur due to women and their despicable nature.