I have always found the myth of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden to be very interesting. Chapter three of the book of Genesis tells us how Eve, wife of Adam and formed of his rib, is seduced by the proffer of knowledge from a serpent. All she has to do is eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Little does she know, the serpent is the devil in disguise. She offers some fruit to her husband and together they eat, effectively opening their eyes to the goods and evils of the world. They realize they are naked and clothe themselves in fig leaves. God sees that they have clothed themselves and asks them how they knew they were naked, and they admit to eating the fruit. God kicks them out of paradise, curses them until He runs out of ideas, and installs a divine security system so that His degenerate children may never return.
Even as a child the contradictions inherent in this myth were apparent to me. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why did He have to ask Adam and Eve why they were clothed? Should He not simply have known? The whole situation seems reminiscent of an episode of Psych: it is God’s observational skills that uncover the crime, not His professed ability to know all. Furthermore, if God is as loving a father as He claims to be, wouldn’t He want his children to be wise? Why try to force them into perpetual childhood? And since God is supposed to be all-knowing, wouldn’t He have known they would disobey him anyway?
Not to mention that the Bible has always seemed (to me) to support a kind of Greco-Roman religious view beneath the Christian dogma. God says, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness (Genesis 1:26).” When He discovers Adam and Eve’s transgression, He says, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever (Genesis 3:11).” This implies that God is not the only deity, but one of many; it also implies that divine status can be attained by a mortal. These are both characteristics of Greco-Roman mythology. But I digress; I was going to talk about how the themes in the story of Adam and Eve parallel those in a myth which has been discussed in class.
The lesson described the myth of Pandora and Prometheus. The first obvious similarity is that this myth has some internal contradiction, as well. Perhaps contradiction is a theme all myths share! When Zeus offers Pandora to Prometheus, Prometheus knows it is a trick and so gives Pandora to his brother, Epimetheus. Since Prometheus is famous for his forethought, shouldn’t he realize that whatever danger Pandora might present would have a better chance of being contained or avoided in his own hands, rather than in the hands of his fool brother? Also, the myth does not follow the rules it presents. Pandora’s Box contained such evils as famine, poverty, and disease. While they were inside the box, humans did not experience these things. Only when they were released from the box did they begin to plague humanity. The myth also says that hope was inside the box, and that humans only retained the ability to hope because Pandora shut the box before hope escaped. If disease does not exist while inside the box, but does exist when released from the box, then shouldn’t the same be true for hope? Shouldn’t it exist only if it is released from the box, but not when contained inside it?
While contradiction is a characteristic both myths share, it isn’t really a theme. I think the central theme in both of these myths is very important. Christian mythology tells us that most of the hardships in the world are the result of God’s curses on Adam and Eve. Basically, humans know suffering because Eve was curious. We see a similar theme in the myth of Pandora; once again, humanity suffers at the hands of a woman’s curiosity. This is how these myths have been presented to us, and this is how we believe them. But these viewpoints are biased at the hands of men. As I mentioned above, Prometheus has the power to prevent the disastrous events that occur – and though he lets it happen, we are urged to believe it is solely the woman’s fault. Eve offers the fruit of the tree of life to Adam, and he accepts it. Nowhere in the Bible do I see Adam arguing with Eve. He doesn’t urge her not to eat; he doesn’t take the fruit and throw it from her. He simply accepts the fruit and together they eat. Yet we are urged to believe this is solely the woman’s fault. When we set aside our biases to study these myths, shouldn’t we conclude that man and woman share the fault? No, I don’t believe we should.
Let’s look closer. God created Adam, and later created Eve. He forbade them to eat the fruit of the tree of life, because He did not want them to be wise and to understand good and evil. He intentionally made Adam and Eve naïve. So when the serpent persuades Eve to eat from the tree, why shouldn’t she? She has no knowledge of deceit. She does not know what a lie is or why one might be told. God has left Eve defenseless against manipulation; and yet He punishes her when that vulnerability is exploited. Zeus made Pandora out of clay and asked the goddesses of Olympus to bestow their blessings upon her. This would have included Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the pursuit of knowledge (among other things). Zeus himself exploited a natural curiosity that he knew Pandora would have. In both of these myths, the blame lies with the deity in question. The Christian God denies humans wisdom and then punishes them for it. Zeus endangers humankind in a petty attempt to get even with Prometheus, and does so by exploiting a trait he made sure Pandora would have.
So what should we call this theme? In both myths a deity unjustly punishes humanity for a woman’s perfectly understandable curiosity. Both myths condemn human curiosity, as though it were a sin. In reality, curiosity is the mother of invention; and together, these two qualities make humankind great.
Works Cited:
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: World Publishing, 1997. Print.
"Myths and Legends: Prometheus & Pandora." Grey School of Wizardry. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.
