Women In Hesiod's Theogony

Words: 295
Pages: 2

The ancient Greek perception of women inferred from the “Prometheus and Pandora” myth in Hesiod’s epic poem Theogony is ambiguous - woman is portrayed both as a punishment and as a gift. After the gift of fire is stolen by Prometheus with the help of Athena and given to man, Zeus decides to punish the new race of man, and to this extent, he creates Woman. Woman is seen as punishment at this point and also when temptation consumes her, and she decides to open the box given to her before she was sent to earth, which results in misery. As she opened the box, “there was a whirring, rustling sound before she could shut it down again” and “out flew ten thousand strange creatures with death-like faces and horrible forms [...] They were diseases and