The Greek Attitude Towards Women as seen in the Works of...

The Greek Attitude Towards Women as seen in the Works of Hesiod Hesiod leaves no doubt that the existence of women is on balance a terrible thing for men. Zeus ordered Hephaistos to create women as a punishment for his having been decieved.. Women were to be a poisoned gift for men, which all shall take to their hearts with delight, an evil to love and embrace (WD, 57-59). In the Theogony women are called a great plague because they are ill-suited to Poverty’s curse, but suited to Plenty (592-93), among other flaws. While Hesiod offers some well-turned phrases in praise of womens’ good qualities, it is unmistakable that these positive attributes are all put there by Zeus for the sole purpose of making woman an inescapable†¦show more content†¦Prometheus is given a (possibly) eternal torment, to be chained to a column and have his liver torn out daily. His brother Epimetheus is given what we may infer is punishment of comparable magnitude: the first woman. In the Works and Days, we learn she is called Pandora, The Gift of Al l. This gift comes with many alluring qualities: she looks like a goddess immortal, having the lovely shape of a virgin, she is taught by Athena weaving, and Aphrodite hasshed on her charm, †¦mak[ing] her an object of painful love and exhausting desire (Theogony, 62-66). She is dressed by Athena in a silver-white gown (575) and adorned by the Graces and our Lady Persuasion with golden necklaces, and crowned by Horai with flowers, as well as an intricately crafted golden crown, which, while a marvel to look at, depicts terrible monsters. And if these charms aren’t enough to lure a man into the clutches of woman, men who do not marry and have progeny are doomed to baneful old age with no one to care for his needs,(604-5) and his collateral heirs will divide his goods. At best, a man manages to get a virtuous wife, one endowed with good sense, throughout his life good and evil will alternate endlessly (606-8). The alternative is a wife who is not any good at all, and so the man will suffer without any respite all his life. Because in addition to woman’s inherently evil nature, that Hermes put in her mind a dog’s shamelessness and the deceit ofShow MoreRelatedAnimal Imagery And The Classical Period Essay2365 Words   |  10 Pagesuse of animal imagery in Greek literature initially appears easy to understand as it is one of the simplest types of comparison found in poetry from European tradition. In fact, Western culture seems to encourage us to contrast the human world with that of the animal. This habit makes it easy to assume that no profound meaning can truly be drawn from such a clichà ©d analogy. 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