Pandora and Eve
We find in science that it is the genetic markers in the female that are passed down, making the female progenitors of the human race the ones with the power. It makes one consider if early civilizations feared this power and thus the insurgence of a male dominate sky god bent on supplanting and dominating the earth goddess from which he emerged.
At the beginning of recorded history, of recorded myth and legend, God and Goddess stand united in their power and their being. Using myths for hundreds of cultures as a basis, the hypothesis would stand that humanity began with a Matricentric or egalitarian societies. Matricentric, being societies that were centered on the authority of females, rule and decisions were placed in the hands of women, as males were warriors, hunters and did not live as long, therefore the females of these societies were left to create their own rules and government. Egalitarian societies were more balanced, with power falling on both male and female elders equally. Based on the evolution of mythology one can see how this balance of belief is reflected in the gods and goddesses above. From the matricentric cultures we have the development of the Mother Goddess; the Earth from which all life is born. She is represented by Ki in Sumerian myth, Nertha of the Norse, Danu of the Celts, Kabau of the Akkadians and Gaea of the Greeks. From her was born the gods, Sun Gods who were at once sons and lovers, being born by her and then consumed. As humankind evolved into more egalitarian cultures we see the god become more consort than child, equal and still born of the earth. These representations of the earth honored that life came from the womb of women. It gave honor to both the female and the male, showing that neither was complete without the other. And then evolved the patriarchal societies, and the monotheistic.
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, one can clearly see both an egalitarian and patriarchal creation story side by side. They were written centuries apart, the myth about Adam and Eve, was written prior to the creation of them both at the same time. God sees that it is not good for man to be alone and so creates him a help meet. He causes Adam to sleep and “the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto man.” (Genesis 2:22). Bringing Eve out of Adam and presenting her to him places her in a subservient position, the evidence of a patriarchal mentality. And in a more egalitarian version “And God created humans in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27).
Further evidence of the shift to a patriarchal mentality is the domination of the Sun god over the goddess. Earth becomes subjugated, losing her power and potency, we see this in the evidence of Aphrodite, a reincarnation of the Goddess Ishtar who is fierce and unconquered, but in the Greek patriarchy she becomes a spoiled, haughty, flighty female without the substance of her former self.
Eve and Pandora, once creatrix goddess’ of their cultures, shrink into shadow, losing their power as they become subjects to the male superior societies in which they are surrounded. It is the fear of losing power, of becoming emasculated by the female deity, as seen with Cronos’ castration of his father Uranus at the urging of Gaea, the Earth Mother. It is this fear turns Eve, the womb of life to the “the lance of the demon”, “the road of iniquity” “the sting of the scorpion”, “a daughter of falsehood, the sentinel of Hell”, “the enemy of peace” and “of the wild beast, the most dangerous.” It turns Pandora into the bearer of all the gifts of man, from the holder of Hope, the cause of man’s pain and misfortune. She is the bane of man’s existence, born as punishment for knowledge and civilization.
In the middle ages, this was further advanced, to an almost hysteric level. The church elders draw upon scripture, urging submission and silence upon women, arguing that “Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression”. It was Eve who was tempted so the early Fathers of the Church blamed her and all women thereafter responsible for sin and the Fall of man.
Woman and Man were created through science and through myth as one; their physical union is the creation of life and in our ancient past both were honored for their place in the catalyst of life and society. But through fear and aggression, ignorance and the need for power, the balance shifted and the union of Male and Female was lost. Even now, humanity struggles to find our balance, to shift the power from one hand to the other, and ideally into both, so that the scales are balanced once more.
