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Nicole Melkonian
English 181
Ms. Duck
11/12/16
Annotated Bibliography for Expertise Project
D'Aulaire, Ingri, and Edgar P. D'Aulaire. D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. “Pandora’s
Box.” Doubleday Book for Young Readers, 1962. Print.
In D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, D'Aulaire tells the story of Pandora,
the first mortal woman, created by Zeus and some of the other God’s, to serve as
the wife of Epimetheus. Each of the God’s had given her a special gift: Aphrodite
gave her beauty so she could please his eyes, Hermes give her a clever tongue so
she could amuse him, Apollo gave her musical talents so she could entertain him,
and Zeus gave her the gift of curiosity. As a wedding gift, Zeus also gave them a
box, but told them to never open it. As a result of the gift of curiosity she
received, Pandora greatly wished to open the box. Despite being warned not to by
her husband, Pandora opened the box, and out came the various misery’s that
were designed to wreck havoc on the mortals. Pandora had let out disease, cruelty,
pain, old age, disappointment, hatred, war, death, and jealously and caused
mortals to suffer.
As shown in the myth, Pandora was literally created for a man, by a man,
and to bear the sin of bringing misery to the mortals. As shown in the beginning
of the story, her identity and her appearance was created in order to please her
husband. She is given all positive and desirable qualities, except for her curiosity,
which is painted in a negative light and shown as a quality that women should not
have, because they do not know how to control it. Here, Pandora is shown as
helpless, weak, and unable to resist her curiosity. Pandora attempts to tempt and
persuade her husband into opening the box, but when he refuses, and so she does
it alone. She is seen as a temptress, and her husband is seen as a victim. Pandora
was sent to man as punishment, and is therefore the scapegoat for man, taking the
blamed for all of the misery that mankind experience.
"Genesis 2:4-3:24." The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments. Trenton: I.
Collins, 1791. N. pag. Print.
Genesis 2:4-3:24, is the creation story of Adam and Eve. In this section,
God places man in the Garden of Eden to work in it and to take care of it. He tells
man that they are free to eat from any tree in the Garden, with the expectation of
the tree of knowledge. God creates animals, and livestock, but none of these serve
as a companion for man himself. So as Adam is in a deep sleep, he takes out one
of his ribs and from that he creates woman. Adam says, “this is now bone of my
bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called “woman” for she was taken out of
man.” The Bible goes on to say that man is united to wife, and they become one
flesh. Next, the serpent approaches the woman, Eve, and asks if it is true that God
told them not to eat out of any tree in the garden. Eve replies by saying that you
must not eat from the tree of knowledge, and the serpent replies that she will not
die. So, Eve approaches the tree, and after seeing that has desirable food, and
knowing that it will give her knowledge, she takes some of the fruit off, eats it
herself, and also convinces Adam to eat it too. When confronted by God, Adam
replies “the woman you put here with me- she gave me some fruit from the tree,
and I ate it.” Eve says that the serpent deceived her, but God tells Eve that he will
make the pains of childbirth severe, and that her husband will rule over her. He
then banishes them from the Garden of Eden.
As demonstrated in Genesis 2:4-3:24, Eve was literally born out of her
husband, to bear his sins. Eve was the one who tempted and convinced Adam to
eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, and caused them to be banished from the
Garden of Eden. Here, Adam is seen as the ultimate victim of Eve’s wrong doing,
even though we see that the serpent encouraged Eve. Here, Eve seen as a
temptress, and her husband is seen as her victim. This also shows that the serpent
easily manipulated Eve, causing her to appear weak. The Bible also highlights the
fact that woman was born out of a man, and therefore forever indebted to him.
Eve was born to be the scapegoat for man, taking the blame for his sin.
Homer. "Book 19." The Iliad. N.p.: Doubleday, 1974. N. pag. Print.
In Homer’s The Iliad, Ate is depicted as the daughter of Zeus. On the day
that Zeus and his wife Hera were expecting the birth of their son Heracles, Ate
used her influence over Zeus to make him take an oath made Zeus take an oath
that the child born out of his linage on that day would “rule over all those
dwelling about him.” (Iliad, Book 19). Hera then made her daughter, Eileithyia
the goddess of childbirth, delay Heracles’ birth. As a result, Eurystheus therefor
became the ruler, and Heracles was his subject. Zeus, feeling deceived, threw Ate
down to earth, and forbade her from ever returning to Mount Olympus. On earth,
Ate walked on the heads of men, and wrecked havoc on mortals.
As shown, Zeus was deceived by three females in this myth. Ate is blamed
for the fact that Zeus’s designated son, Heracles, was not made a great ruler. Ate
is shown as weak enough to be thrown off of Mount Olympus by Zeus, but still is
able to wreck havoc on men on earth. Ate is the goddess of strife, and typically in
Greek mythology, God’s of strife or conflict are painted in a positive light, while
Ate is seen as troublemaker and causing problems for even the most powerful of
God’s, Zeus. She is seen as deceiving, and tempting, tricking Zeus into taking the
oath. Here, Ate is seen as a scapegoat for man, being blamed for the fact that
Heracles was not able to rule the way he was supposed to, and also being blamed
for the misery that mankind experience.
Hamilton, Edith, and Steele Savage. "The Fall of Troy." Mythology. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1942. N. pag. Print.
Helen was the most beautiful woman in Greece. She had suitors from all
over Greece, but from her suitors she chose Menelaus. They lived happily
together for a while, but that would soon end. Paris, a prince of the city Troy,
travelled to Sparta, after being promised by Aphrodite that he would get to be
with Helen, the most beautiful women in the world. Aphrodite promised him this
as a result of a contest that the goddess Ate delivered. When Menelaus was away,
Helen went back to Troy with Paris. When Menelaus returned home and
discovered Helen missing, he called to the leaders of Greece for help. They
organized a great expedition to find Helen and set out for Troy. Their arrival at
Troy is what marked the start of the Trojan War. During this war, Helen worked
for both sides. At certain times she helped the Trojans and at others, she helped
the Greeks. Paris died in war, and shortly after Helen married his brother
Deiphobus. After the war, she was reunited with her first husband Menelaus, and
together they killed Deiphobus and continued to be married happily.
As the myth demonstrates, Helen is blamed for the Trojan War as a result
of her helpless beauty. The story also highlights that Helen’s infidelity also
sparked the Trojan War. Helen is seen as too helpless to say no to another man,
and too beautiful for people to be able to turn her down and not pursue her even
though she is married. Here, Helen is seen as a temptress, wrecking havoc around
her simply by her looks. Similarly, the fact that Menelaus took her back after she
had been unfaithful and wrecked havoc on a city, further exacerbates the point
that Helen is irresistible and the ultimate temptation that Menelaus cannot turn
down despite her infidelity. Instead of Menelaus and the Greek leaders that
marched into Troy and killed people and destroyed the city, Helen is still seen as
the one who started the war, when in reality there was conflict between the two
cities to begin with. Here, Helen is clearly the scapegoat for the men who started
the Trojan War.
Decker, Jessica Elbert. "Hail Hera, Mother Of Monsters! Monstrosity As Emblem Of
Sexual Sovereignty." Women's Studies 45.8 (2016): 743-757. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Pandora is given to Epithemeus as punishment for the theft of fire. It
becomes clear that Pandora is a trap, and that she is equally as alluring as she is
deadly. This coincides with a common theme that exists in contemporary culture:
the femme fatale. Pandora is given many gifts by the God’s during her creation,
but her curiosity and the box she receives are the most dangerous. From this box,
she lets loose ills and pains, placing blame on women for the suffering that exists
in the world. The story of Pandora “allows for a male appropriation of the power
of birth.” (Decker, 5). Pandora is the first woman to be born, and was an artifice
of Zeus. Therefore, Zeus is the one responsible for her birth, and not nature and a
woman’s body. This undermines “female generative power” (Decker, 5), making
women an accessory to a greater plan designed by men. The story of Pandora
fulfills the desire for men to control generation and birth, but here it comes with a
price. Athena is the god of human birth, and when Zeus tries to take over this, he
reveals a terrifying image of women, and produces a deadly Pandora. Pandora
appears to fulfill male wishes, but results as an object of fear.
Graves, Robert. "Pandora's Box And Eve's Apple." New Republic 135.7 (1956): 16-18.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
There exists create parallelism between the creation stories of Eve and
Pandora. Both the birth’s of Pandora and Eve were planned and controlled by
men, and ended up backfiring. Eve was created out of Adam’s rib, to keep him
company. Pandora was generated by several God’s, given many positive qualities,
but the gift of curiosity was a trap. Both Pandora and Eve are seen as curious and
too weak to control their curiosity, resulting in Eve eating from the tree of
knowledge and Pandora releasing suffering onto mortals. Both are seen as
uncontrollable, easily tempted, sources of danger. However, with this weakness
comes the power to control men. Pandora and Eve represent the notion of
beautiful evil, creating the idea that women are this beautiful mystery that must be
controlled by men. In the story of Adam and Eve, it is the serpent that tempts Eve
to eat an apple, yet Eve is the one who is blamed. Similarly, Zeus is the one who
gives Pandora the gift of curiosity, which prompts her to open the box, yet
Pandora is the one who is blamed for introducing suffering to mankind. Both
women are seen as responsible for releasing evil in the world. In both cases, men
are seen as the one who was tempted and brought down by female, the victim,
whereas Pandora and Eve are the scapegoat.
Campbell, Charlie. "The Sexual Scapegoat." Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other
People. New York: Duckworth Overlook, 2011. N. pag. Print.
According to Greek Mythology, men and Gods were able to live side by
side, without pain, disease and misery until women came along. Pandora was only
sent by Zeus as a punishment to men. She was given a large jar as a wedding gift,
which she was told to never open. However, Pandora had been given curiosity by
Zeus when she was created, and therefore decided to open the box. She attempted
to encourage her husband to as well. By doing so, she introduced evil, disease and
misery into the world. As a result, mankind was then forced to work, grow old,
get sick, fight, and die. As Campbell says, this reinforces the original expression
of feminine evil.
Similarly, the goddess of strife, Ate, is also response for infatuation,
mischief, and delusion. Ate was thought to have caused the initial beginning of
the Trojan War by going to the wedding of Peleus uninvited. While at the
wedding, she encouraged the goddess’s Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite to fight over
a golden apple that was meant for “the fairest”. Each goddess promised something
different in exchange for receiving the golden apple. Aphrodite promised the most
beautiful woman in the world, Helen. As a result, Helen fell in love with Paris,
and the fled to Troy together. Similarly, Ate was also blamed for Achilles’s
argument with Agamemnon, who blamed Ate for his infatuation with the girl he
had stolen from Achilles. As the myth says, “Delusion, the eldest daughter of
Zeus, the accursed, who deludes all and leads them astray…took my wife away
from me. She has entangled others before me.” Next, the author then goes on to
argue that after Pandora, Helen of Troy is the “focal point of Greek misogyny.”
(Page 290) As a result of her beauty, Helen is blamed for the Trojan War, with the
story saying her beauty provoked it.
On another note, the stories in Greek mythology go hand in hand with the
treatment of women in Greek society. The myths both highlighted and further
exacerbate the epidemic of the fear of women in Greek society. In Ancient
Greece, women had the legal status of children, and were not seen fit to witness
legal matters. Women were confined to the house. As the Greek playwright
Menander wrote “He who teaches letters to his wife is ill advised: he’s giving
additional poison to a snake.” This part of the chapter helps to place the
scapegoating of women seen in these myths in context with Greece at the time.
As demonstrated by Campbell, in Greek mythology, female characters are
always blamed when something goes wrong, or for deceiving and tempting men.
In his first example, Pandora attempts to tempt and persuade her husband into
opening the box, but when he refuses, and she does it alone. She is seen as a
temptress, and her husband is seen as a victim. Pandora was sent to man as
punishment, and is therefore the scapegoat for man, taking the blamed for all of
the misery that mankind experience as a result of her inability to control her
curiosity. Similarly, Ate is seen as a scapegoat for men, taking blame for Zeus’s
son not reaching his full potential as a leader and for starting the Trojan War. Ate
possesses qualities that many of the male god’s possesses, but in her, they are
seen as negative and she is perceived as wreck less, and wrecks havoc on men. On
another note, Helen of Troy is also blamed for starting the Trojan War as a result
of her beauty. Her, she is seen as tempting, and a temptress for men as well.
Instead of Menelaus or the Greek leaders who supported him, Helen is made into
the scapegoat, being forced to take the blame.
Glenn, Justin. “Pandora and Eve: Sex as the Root of All Evil.” The Classical World, vol.
71, no. 3, 1977, pp. 179–185. www.jstor.org/stable/4348824
The image of Pandora opening her box, and Eve eating and persuading
Adam to eat the fruit are equivalent. Both Pandora and Eve are seen as weak,
unable to control their inner curiosity. However, they are both seen as sources of
danger, their innate wreck less curiosity posing a danger to the men around them.
Both Pandora and Eve are portrayed as never being satisfied, always looking for
something greater. It is this dissatisfaction and curiosity that lead them to be seen
as responsible for releasing evil in the world. This can predict why the female sex
is often seen as the root of all problems that we face. These two stories represent
some of the first instances in which women are blamed for tempting men, when in
reality it is not the woman’s fault. This idea that men are the victims of women is
something that we see very often in our society, and perhaps this is the root of
where victim blaming started.