Barry B. Powell's Classical Myth

"For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (1 Timothy 2:13-14). In Classical Myth, Barry B. Powell notes that both the Holy Bible and Ancient Greek mythology were "composed by males for males in an environment utterly ruled by males" (119). As only males in Ancient Greece received an education and the ability to read and write, we can collect male values through the narratives. After all, the function of myth is to pass down the values of a culture to the next generation (Powell 3). With this in mind, Powell calls the Greek poet Hesiod's story of Pandora "rich with sexual antagonism" (113). I will demonstrate that, as a patriarchal tradition, Hesiod depicts …show more content…
In what sounds like a poor argument on marriage, Hesiod reasons that a single man may have wealth, but will die forever upon death; whereas, a married man's legacy continues through his children, and this is worth the patience needed to have a wife. As Powell points out, while Hesiod admits that "there is no hope altogether in abandoning women" (119), he claims that a woman will never cease to bring difficulty in a man's life. This claim clearly provides insight of the masculine ideology of Hesiod's …show more content…
Paired alongside the birth of woman, the jar itself is representative of a woman, as a sort of container. In effect, this goes alongside the thought that a woman's purpose was to bear children, as a woman's womb is the container which carries the future child of a man. Whether or not that child may respect or betray their father is to open the Pandora's jar; nevertheless, just as hope remained in Pandora's jar, hope remains for the future in the form of children in the womb. As Powell puts it, "Hope, still within the jar, is like the child in the womb: unfulfilled, a possibility for good or ill" (121). By the same token, the jar also refers back to the issue of female consumption of