Comparing Women In Hesiod's Theogony And Works And Days

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Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days are both creation stories that serve an explanation of the gods, their behavior, and how other natural phenomenon came to be. Among the many explanations, Hesiod tells the story of how mortal women were born and what characteristics females have. These attributes of women are still present today such as women being an object of beauty and sex and having a direct role in fertility and motherhood. Hesiod creates women as a form of punishment for men and society. In Theogony, women are created to serve as an “evil for mortal men” and anyone who does not marry remains unloved, “with no one to care for him” (610, 614). In Works and Days, women are represented by Pandora, a beautiful and seductive girl who “scattered pains and evils among men” (94). It can be argued that Hesiod is sexist for representing women in a bad light and making them seem that all they do is cause suffering and destruction. However, it is important …show more content…
In Theogony, Gaia, the mother of the earth is victorious in defeating her husband’s abusiveness and helping Rhea escape Kronos rath, a charistsic of intelligence and manipulation. In the creation of Pandora, men are “swarms of bees” for they are slaves to women’s beauty, in need for sex they only could provide.

In Theogony, Hesiod begins his creation story by introducing the first of gods, Chaos, Gaia, Tartaros, and Eros. In the beginning, there was nothing. It was these four gods that began the genealogy of the many gods to come, all with different purposes and powers. Gaia is the mother of earth who“gave birth to the tall mountains” and the “divine nymphs”, “beautiful maidens inhabiting and sometimes personifying features of nature[..]”(150). Gaia is not only the mother of nature, she’s the mother of fertility and life. Hesiod first presents
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