Zeus punished mankind by creating the first woman, Pandora. Aphrodite, Athena and Hermes gave her different attributes like beauty, cunningness and femininity. She received a vase from Zeus and told her not to open it under any circumstance, but she was so curious that she decided to open it, releasing evils and diseases in the world and by the time she closed the lid, hope remained trapped inside. Pandora, the first woman, through her creation her curiosity and deception her role was consequential in categorizing other mortal women and other female characters having the same attributes. Through her creation, reveals the sexism that existed in pre existing Greek society.
Pandora was curious, clever, deceptive and greedy. Many mortal women
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Pandora demonstrates that women were only important because of their beauty however, on the inside they were manipulative cheaters. One of Pandora’s traits, curiosity, lead her to release trouble and evil into the world. Pandora thought that inside the vase was some sort of valuable like money. Her curiosity, foolishness and selfishness drove her to open the jar. Her being the first woman, and mistakenly opening the jar full of evil has contributed to the typical attributes women were portrayed as. Curiosity can lead to destruction as exemplified by Pandora. A woman’s curiosity can get the best of them and bring harm. Interestly, this parallels to the story of Adam and Eve where Eve was curious about eating the apple after she was told not to and it ultimately bestowed the devil. Curiosity can cause harm and can get many in trouble. Furthermore, Pandora’s gullibility that lead her to open the jar is apparent in other mortal woman, such as Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia. Iphigenia was tricked by her father by thinking she was going to marry Achilles and ultimately sacrificed her; her gullibility lead to her death. Another example of this in goddesses is the kidnapping of Persephone which Hades tricked her to eat 6 pomegranate seeds which caused her to remain in the underworld for 6 months. Moreover, when Metis was tricked by Zeus into entering her stomach which ultimately she was trapped inside there. Women’s foolishness is seen throughout Greek mythology, their foolishness ultimately leads them to their