The story of Cinderella is one that has touched the hearts of nearly all who’ve heard it due to its sympathetic heroine who must suffer mistreatment at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her. It is such a popular story that nearly every culture has a version of her with different traits. The oldest recorded edition dates back to Ancient Egypt in the story of Doricha, a young Greek girl who is thrust into a life of servitude in Egypt after she is kidnapped by pirates. She sings to keeps herself happy during her enslavement which, along with some help from the falcon god Horus, ultimately delivers her from her predicament. Raisel, or the Jewish Cinderella, is similar in that after her scholarly grandfather dies, Raisel finds work in the house of a prominent rabbi and uses her wisdom and her gift of telling riddles to deliver her from under the cruel cook for whom she worked and into the arms of the rabbi’s son. …show more content…
Rhodopis’s resourcefulness manifests itself in, not only her physical labor, but in her use of song to stay optimistic, while Raisel’s ingenuity is displayed when she tells the rabbi’s son a riddle while disguised as Queen Esther at a Purim celebration. Because both of these women live in patriarchal societies, there is little they could do to actively change their respective fates but to use the seemingly insignificant skills that they possess. Though they possess these talents, Rhodipos and Raisel also gain status through divine intervention. Both stories insist that women are not to be complex creatures, but rather pawns that are at the will and whim of the men and the divine entities that surround them, both ideas being perpetuated by each of their