Hesiod's 'Analyzing The Myths Of Prometheus'
Paper: CLAS105
Tutor: Harry Love
Name: Aleesha Powell
Student ID: 229507
Word count: 1809
The Hesiod myths of Prometheus, involving the myths of the sacrifice, theft of fire and the creation of Pandora (women) are an attempt to show the downfall of man from the ‘Golden Age’ of living amongst the Gods and being immortal to the life of the classical Greek farmer, where life was difficult and laborious. Hesiod attempts to explain this, through a series of interconnecting myths dealing with man, primarily through the Titan Prometheus interactions with Zeus.
Prometheus was a 2nd generation Titan who is said to be the maker of humans but was also the Titan who took Zeus’ side in the battle against his cousin Titans. His name means trickster …show more content…
Her name means ‘all gifts’ as she was the creation of the Gods. Many of the Gods put in different characteristics to help form her. She can also be interpreted, as being the mother of all things as the descendants of Pandora was the women race. Pandora was an etiological myth meaning it explained the origin of women, marriage and suffering in the world. Zeus offered Pandora to Epimetheus as a trick similar to that of the sacrifice. She held beauty on the outside but had the ‘soul of a bitch’ on the inside. This can be due to the character given to Pandora by Hermes, lies and cunning ways. From this Pandora’s curiosity could not contain itself and the jar given to her by Zeus was opened. Strangely enough it is not mention by Hesiod that Pandora was not allowed to open the jar, perhaps this was obvious to the readers however Epimetheus was told not to accept any gifts from the Gods and disobeyed. Perhaps the more evident message here is that mans’ greediness and constant disobedience of the Gods results badly. In the jar however, contained all the horrible things in the world like disease, labour, misery and death. Zeus punished Prometheus for stealing fire, but he also punished man by imposing what Hesiod regarded as the greatest affliction of all; women. “They’ll pay for fire; ill give another gift to men, an evil thing for their delight”. Amongst all …show more content…
During the sacrifice myth, Prometheus wraps the worst bits of the animal in glorious fat, in other words disguising it in beauty in order to trick Zeus. A similar aspect occurs in the Pandora myth. Zeus creates a beautiful woman and tempts Epimetheus, however hides the evils of the worlds with her. Therefore allowing man to make the wrong choice, as did he. A third theme would have to be that of the common hero in all the three myths. Hesiod allows Prometheus to appears in all myths and therefore creates a sequence between
Tutor: Harry Love
Name: Aleesha Powell
Student ID: 229507
Word count: 1809
The Hesiod myths of Prometheus, involving the myths of the sacrifice, theft of fire and the creation of Pandora (women) are an attempt to show the downfall of man from the ‘Golden Age’ of living amongst the Gods and being immortal to the life of the classical Greek farmer, where life was difficult and laborious. Hesiod attempts to explain this, through a series of interconnecting myths dealing with man, primarily through the Titan Prometheus interactions with Zeus.
Prometheus was a 2nd generation Titan who is said to be the maker of humans but was also the Titan who took Zeus’ side in the battle against his cousin Titans. His name means trickster …show more content…
Her name means ‘all gifts’ as she was the creation of the Gods. Many of the Gods put in different characteristics to help form her. She can also be interpreted, as being the mother of all things as the descendants of Pandora was the women race. Pandora was an etiological myth meaning it explained the origin of women, marriage and suffering in the world. Zeus offered Pandora to Epimetheus as a trick similar to that of the sacrifice. She held beauty on the outside but had the ‘soul of a bitch’ on the inside. This can be due to the character given to Pandora by Hermes, lies and cunning ways. From this Pandora’s curiosity could not contain itself and the jar given to her by Zeus was opened. Strangely enough it is not mention by Hesiod that Pandora was not allowed to open the jar, perhaps this was obvious to the readers however Epimetheus was told not to accept any gifts from the Gods and disobeyed. Perhaps the more evident message here is that mans’ greediness and constant disobedience of the Gods results badly. In the jar however, contained all the horrible things in the world like disease, labour, misery and death. Zeus punished Prometheus for stealing fire, but he also punished man by imposing what Hesiod regarded as the greatest affliction of all; women. “They’ll pay for fire; ill give another gift to men, an evil thing for their delight”. Amongst all …show more content…
During the sacrifice myth, Prometheus wraps the worst bits of the animal in glorious fat, in other words disguising it in beauty in order to trick Zeus. A similar aspect occurs in the Pandora myth. Zeus creates a beautiful woman and tempts Epimetheus, however hides the evils of the worlds with her. Therefore allowing man to make the wrong choice, as did he. A third theme would have to be that of the common hero in all the three myths. Hesiod allows Prometheus to appears in all myths and therefore creates a sequence between