Richard Taveras
Women in Theogony
Hesiod was a Greek poet who wrote his stories at around 700 B.C. At the time of his writing, many writers viewed women negatively or in a hostile way. In most of Greek mythology, there is a general distrust towards women, and they are viewed as being far below men in many of the stories. In Theogony, Hesiod give the impression that he believes that women are inferior and subordinate to men. In the text itself, we see why women were created, the roles that they were supposed to serve, and the one quality of theirs Hesiod deemed powerful.
The first sign of Hesiod’s negative view of women is the reason they were created. In the story, Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to men, is punished by Zeus. As part of his punishment, Zeus decides to create the first woman. He fashions her after Gaia and Athena, and, when he shows her to the other gods, Hesiod says this, “Wonder held immortal gods and mortal men, when they saw a sheer cunning, unmanageable for men. For from her is the descent of female women. [for the race and tribes of women are destructive,] a great pain for mortals, living with men, companions not of destructive Poverty but of Plenty” (Hesiod 589-593). In the first sentence he calls them unmanageable for men, which means they will be a problem. Then he goes on to call all women destructive. Yet, the last line is the most interesting one. Hesiod is basically saying that women are gold-diggers. They will be companions not when times are rough, but when times are good and there is plenty of everything. A few lines later, women are compared to bees: “they busy themselves and pack white honeycombs, while the drones, staying within the sheltered nest, scrape into their stomachs the fruits of another’s weariness,” (Hesiod 597-599). Not only has he called them gold diggers, he is now accusing them of being freeloaders. He is saying that they reap all the rewards of hard work, without actually doing any themselves. Just like the lazy bees, they let the drones (the men) get all of the honey (get food, work), while they sit in the hive enjoying it. It is clear by this description of women that Hesiod has a bad opinion towards them.
The next piece of evidence of Hesiod’s negative opinion towards women is the roles women are supposed to serve. First of all, in another one of Hesiod’s works he talks about Pandora. Pandora is supposedly the first woman ever created (the one from the previous paragraph). Pandora was given a box by Zeus and the rest of the Gods and was told not to open it. She ignored this very obvious warning and proceeded to do so anyways. “At first the tribes of men had lived upon the earth, apart and free of evils and of tiresome toil and hard diseases, which have brought to men their dooms, because by hardship mortal men are quickly aged. But with her hands the woman raised the jar’s great lid, released all these, devising grievous cares for men” (Days and Nights 90-94). So according to Hesiod, before women arrived, men lived happy lives. There were no real problems. But when Pandora opened the box, she unleashes all these problems upon them.
Hesiod is effectively stating that women are the root of all evil. Now besides being the cause of all problems, a common theme in Greek mythology is that women are nothing more than child bearers. Hesiod’s writing coincides with this point in the following excerpt about the way a man lives his life:
Whoever, fleeing marriage and women’s mischievous deeds, chooses not to marry comes to destructive old age without someone to tend to his old age. He lives in want of nothing, but when he dies, distant relatives divide up his property. For that man whose lot it is to marry and have a trusty wife, one suited to his ways, evil unceasingly rivals good from his prime (Theogony 603-609).
Here, Hesiod is saying that there are men who may want to avoid getting married because they want to avoid the evil of women. But if you avoid this evil as a man, you are left without anybody to take care of you. One can infer that he means the man will have no children. Then the last line means that if a man wants to get married, he needs to constantly be fighting against the mischievous deeds of his women, which will outweigh his own good qualities.
It is clear that Hesiod does not appreciate women. This seems to have been a common sentiment in Greece at the time. In his works, we see that from their creation, women are viewed negatively. They are supposedly the root of all evil, and it is clear that Hesiod believes they are not good for anything besides childbirth and causing problems. It is interesting to see how he constantly interjects his negative attitude towards them into his work and how it gives a deeper meaning to the creation story.