Preview

Femininity in Greek Myth Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
633 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Femininity in Greek Myth Essay Example
Is femininity in mythology? Yes because there is a division between men and women in mythology. Biology tells us that we are two different people. Men and women see the world in different ways. Women are passive, intuitive, submissive, and subjective. Women value love, communication, beauty, and relationships. Men are aggressive, rational, dominant, and objective and they value power, competency, efficiency, and achievement. The ways we see the world are different because we are either man or women. We are also similar as well as different. This paper will discuss the how women/goddess are viewed in the works of "Works and Days", "Theogony" and "Hymn to Demeter." And see that these women/goddess similar to real life women.
In the Works and Days, women are seen as beautiful things and men strong and fighting creatures. Zeus, the king of gods, had Hephaestus fashion a woman endowed with everything, which he called Pandora. Pandora is described as a sweetly seductive female and her name refers to the gifts that all the gods give to mankind. She is made as a tempting snare for Epimetheus. She was sent with an urn full of plagues as a gift to Epimetheus. Pandora opened the jar and out came all the plagues and finally hope. This woman reminds men that not all-beautiful things are good and can be a pain in a man's side. This lesson can be true for the world today. Women are not all sweetly seductive but they can be a real pain in the ass, especially for their boyfriends.
In the Theogony Hesiod described the birth of the gods and goddesses. The universe was formed from Chaos as the foundation of the Earth and the cosmic principle of Love. From Night came the Ether and Day, while the Earth bore Heaven and from Heaven the Ocean and divine beings of assorted shapes and sizes, some of who were hated and hidden by their father Heaven. Not liking this, Earth made a sickle her son Cronos used to cut off the genitals of Uranus which were thrown into the sea and gave birth to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The treatment and stigma towards women is constantly evolving. It varies from country to country, and it changing even today. As war driven cultures started to take over, freedom and respect for women decreased in ancient societies. Their freedom, rights, and societal status were ever changing in history. For this paper, the focus will be on the Ancient Minoa, Classical Athens, and the Roman Empire.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Within Marquardt, P's, “Hesiod's Ambiguous View of Woman” Marquardt, P suggests that Pandora is not a “conspirator in evil works”, but a earth goddess who is nether evil or good. Marquardt, P makes Pandora or as a necessary being that gives men hardships, but also a difficult way out. What Marquardt is saying is that Pandora gives meaning to life, a objective for all men to accomplish.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In a fantasized world like The Odyssey, women can threaten the power of the patriarchy, but in a modernized world like The Catcher in the Rye, women cannot threaten men because they do not hold tangible power. In The Odyssey, women like Helen, have the capability and desire to gain power; Helen exemplifies how women can manipulate men through the use sexulaity to do anything desire, even start a war. Her power over these men not only causes death and destruction, but it also causes endless nights of men missing their wives and just longing for a woman. Unlike The Odyssey, The Catcher in the Rye presents models of women who appear subordinate to men. The average woman in the 1940’s cleans the house, cares for the children, and cooks the dinner. Her life is in the home, leaving her unable to gain power from men. The two situations contrast,…

    • 2216 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Role Of Pandora In Greek

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First, Zeus commissioned his fellow gods to make a beautiful woman from clay and bring her to life. When this was done, he and all of the gods taught her how to behave and get on in society. Now, Zeus was ready to bring revenge to the world. He put Pandora on the earth and offered her in marriage to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, who, though he had been warned not to, accepted Zeus' beautiful gift and married Pandora. As a wedding present, Zeus gave the happy couple one thing: a small with a large lock and instructions never to open it under any circumstances. All was well until one day, eaten away with curiosity, Pandora could not restrain herself any longer: she opened the box, sending out awful things which were shaped like biting moths. Out flew such things as sickness, famine, and poverty, all biting Pandora and leaving her with awful wounds. At this she screamed out in pain and slammed the box shut, filled with regret for her actions. She was too late, though, for when her husband rushed in and found her with the box, all of the…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In most Greek mythology there is a general hostility towards the female sex, which relays that most poets and writers themselves were sexist. Throughout Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, women are portrayed in a very subservient manner, placing them far below men and are almost despised. However, in more than one instance, manipulation, women’s true power, is shown. They are constantly described as beautiful temptresses, which could be thought of as the weakness of many men. When Theogony and Works and Days are looked at as a whole it is obvious that Hesiod’s opinion of women, most likely shared by the Greeks themselves, is that they are inferior and subordinate to men.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gender Roles varied a great deal in both Greek and Rome. In Greece, the gender roles were defined differently then how Rome defined them. Men were treated differently then the women, in both cultures. Women were more or less the keepers of the house and to tend to the slaves and make sure everything ran smoothly; whereas the men worked and tended their people that they ruled over. The men in Greece and Rome had more freedom then the women of that time, meaning they could come and go as they please; whereas the women were kept sheltered.…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Osiris Gender Roles

    • 1709 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Gender plays a paramount role in societies of the past and future as well as in the mythology of many cultures. The role and perception of men and women was very immutable and constant in the past. Ironically, over time the perception of gender roles changed or was very different in certain locations of a nation. In modern day, there is a looser grip on the gender roles in society. Ancient tribes wrote mythologies which were the seeds of their religion and culture, and this may have influenced their posterity. The seeds embedded in the ground were a framework that sprouted as scholars and philosophers unfolded, and added onto the remnants of past religious literacy. The way in which gender plays a role in mythology of cultures, specifically…

    • 1709 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theogeny

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Cosmogony, or the beginning of the birth of the gods, begins with one primeval entity, Chaos. Chaos literally represents the void or the gaping yawn. He also represents symbolically the womb from which all primordial beings originate. Chaos is also described as a mist or air. When Gaia emerges as earth, it creates a symbiosis of the elements of air and earth coming together. Nothing on earth can survive without air, and there are many scientific theories explaining the creation of earth from the void of space. Out of this void in the Hesiod’s Theogeny, comes Gaia, Tartaros/Erebus and Eros.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pandora

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to Greek mythos, Pandora, which means “all-gifted”, was the first woman on Earth and made out of clay by Hephaestus under Zeus’s order. Pandora was made for vengeance, Zeus had her made to give to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus as revenge for giving fire to mortals. Other gods gave her talents such as beauty, persuasion, curiosity, music, etc.to make her more appealing to Epimetheus. At her wedding Zeus gave Pandora a beautiful box, which he instructed never to open. Although she fought off the urge for a long time, Pandora compelled by her curiosity opened the box. When it was opened all the evils were released into the world, except for one that she managed to keep in by shutting the box, Hope.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hephaestus, to create her from the materials of earth and make her irresistibly beautiful. Each of the Greek gods gave her a gift of skill, and aptly named her Pandora, meaning "all gifted." The messenger god, Hermes, with his winged sandals, took Zeus' ghastly creation down to earth, and with her a box given to her by the gods with instructions that it never be opened. One of the gifts that the gods had bestowed upon Pandora was a lively curiosity. After restraining her eagerness to view the contents of the box, Pandora finally lifted the lid and mistakenly released all nature of evil into the world: sickness, hatred, jealously, suffering, and greed. Just as each of the gods had endowed Pandora with a wonderful gift, so had they each stored in the box the greatest evil they could create. Pandora…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pandora's Box

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The name Pandora in Greek means “the one who bears all gifts.” Pandora was the first woman on Earth and created by the gods. She was created out of revenge from Zeus to the people because Prometheus stole fire and gave it to them. Zeus had told Pandora that in the box contained all sorts of gifts from the gods but that she was never allowed to open it, ever. He then took her to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus, to be his wife. Pandora could not hold her curiosity and thus opened the box and BAM! Out flew diseases, illnesses, and hardships. Pandora was terrified so she closed the box as fast as she could, without realizing that she had trapped Hope inside.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Pandora's Box Essay

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In analyzing the various versions of the myth, the main theme seemed to be that of negativity towards woman’s curious desires. This makes the omission of hope from latter versions even more interesting, as the reader is left with nearly no positive elements regarding the actions of Pandora. Thus, the reader’s perception of Pandora is trimmed down, so that all they see is the negative results of her selfishness and curiosity. This idea contributes to my argument of a building stereotype in our society in which a woman’s curiosity is frowned upon.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hesiod's theology is single of the paramount preamble we have on the establishment of the human kind. According to Hesiod, three main rudiments obtain part in the commencement of formation, Chaos, Gaia, and Eros. It is supposed that Chaos provide origin to Erebos and Night at the same time as Ouranos and Okeanos pounce from Gaia. Each youngster had a precise function, and Ouranos's responsibility was to look after Gaia. Later the two became a pair and were the earliest Gods to imperative the earth. They had 12 offspring who were acknowledged as the Titans. Three others known as the Cyclopes, and the three hundred handed Giants. The germ of Ouranos, which fell into the sea, provides birth to Aphrodite while commencing his blood was produce the Fates, the Giants, and the Meliai nymphs.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Myth Of Pandora's Box

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Pandora was given a box or a jar, called “pithos” in Greek. Gods told her that the box contained special gifts from them but she was not allowed to open the box ever. Then Hermes took her to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus, to be his wife. Prometheus had advised Epimetheus not to accept anything from the Gods, but he saw Pandora and was astonished by her beauty, thus he accepted her right away.…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gift as a Curse

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pandora was the first mortal woman on earth. She was very beautiful because all the gods had given her a special gift. While some had given gifts like beauty and grace what was most given was curiosity. After he creation she was paced on earth with a titan and handed a box by the head god Zeus and told not to open it. But her many gifts of curiosity pushed her to open the box. When she did the evils of the world were released. The only thing that remained was hope. In this case we find Pandora to have through a gift, that today is considered appealing, has no hurt not only her but also the world. Another interesting point is that a woman released the evils of the world. This shows Greek conception of women in that they cause the problem and curiosity in women is not a good trait.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays