Eve And Pandora Essays - Adam And Eve, Bereshit, Book Of Genesis

Eve And Pandora Historically, women have been viewed as the downfall of mankind. Temptation, lust, and vanity are the detriments supposedly beset by the first woman. Whether Eve or Pandora came first is irrelevant. They will be remembered as the ones responsible for ruining man and mankind forever. However, both stories should be explored to determine if the myths hold some truth or if it just the result of a sexist storyteller in a male dominated society during biblical times. In the story of Adam and Eve, woman is created merely from the rib of Adam. In the book of Genesis, it says, ?So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ?This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.'?(Genesis, 2:21). Since man was created in the image of God, Eve should not be held completely accountable as the root of all evil. We can derive from this story, however, that because Eve was made from only part of Adam, that she is the weaker sex. Once the serpent had swayed her judgment to indulge in tasting the forbidden fruit, it is thought that she used her charm and grace to persuade Adam to do likewise. The ultimate source of evil was not actually Eve, but the serpent. The serpent, in my opinion, should be the one viewed as cruel and unjust. Eve had no intent on eating the fruit if the serpent didn't try to persuade her. One also has to wonder if the serpent had tried to tempt Adam and if he would have been swayed just the same as Eve. Who is to say that if the roles were reversed that Adam would not have persuaded Eve just the same? Adam ate the fruit after just a little coaxing from Eve, so in my opinion, he was just as at fault as Eve. If it had been Adam who had 2 been confronted by the serpent, I am sure that the story would have had just about the same outcome. Therefore, it is hypocritical to say that Eve was at fault for the destruction of man when Adam may have done the same exact thing in the same situation. Furthermore, Adam ate of the fruit, which makes him to blame as well. Pandora, the quintessential woman, epitomizes everything beautiful and mysterious for man to possess. Created from the best features from each of the gods, she is also the backlash and revenge to befall man due to the fire that was stolen. The box or jar rather, is supposedly filled with manipulation and corruption. As some strange quirk of fate, hope was thrown into the box, which does not escape. Is ?hope' an element within evil? I believe it is conceivable that true evil is flawed with the concept that hope can always cause its demise. Perhaps it was placed in the box simply to make the audience examine where hope lies within themselves. It is also possible that hope was misplaced by the miraculous and marvelous gods. Are the gods liable for all of this anarchy? Is God at fault for having all of this in his divine prophecy? None of this calamity would have happened at all if the gods or God had not intervened in the first place. When God told Adam and Eve not to take from the tree of knowledge, he knew that, out of curiosity, they would partake in the tasty treat. Not to mention the serpent who was created by none other than God himself. The gods, in the other story, created all of the terrible things and are also at fault for what took place. The only thing that makes these gods different is the cause of their actions. Whereas God put Eve on earth to accompany Adam, Zeus' actions were more out of 3 spite. Zeus was an