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Disobeying God In Hesiod's Works And Days

963 Words4 Pages

In Hesiod’s didactic poem, Works and Days, the reader is introduced to the story of Pandora and the Jar. Written in around 700 BCE, this work shows how disobeying the gods may lead to a series of unfortunate events, while also providing modern society a sample on how ancient civilizations attempted to explain why events come to pass much like how Christianity describes the begging of the world and how disobeying God leads to negative events. Both these works give the people something to believe in. Pandora and the Jar can be seen as Ancient Greece’s version of the Bible’s Genesis.
The story begins with ‘creation’, the god Zeus instructed Prometheus to create man, and Epimetheus to create all animals. By giving almost all the ‘gifts’ (such as swiftness and courage) to the animals, there was none left to man but that of to stand upright like the gods. In the Bible, this is represented by God creating man in His image. So, Prometheus, despites Zeus’ disapproval, gave man fire. Enraged, Zeus decided to create the greatest punishment for man, which was the creation of the first woman. So far this attempts to explain why there are …show more content…

He first created all plants and animals, and separated the earth from the heavens. Genesis not only explains how creatures were created, but how the earth was as well. God separates the land from the water (earth), earth from heavens (space), and light from darkness (day and night). After this man is created to tend the earth, and obey God. While Adam is alone, he does not disobey God and everything is ‘good’. God saw that Adam was lonely, so he created woman from one of his Adam’s ribs. Rather than being a punishment, woman was created as a companion for man (Adam). Both Adam and Eve where allowed to do as they pleased except for one thing. Under no circumstances were they to be permitted to eat from the tree of Wisdom, much like Pandora not being allowed to open the

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