Historically, women have been viewed as the downfall of mankind. Temptation, lust, and vanity are the detriments supposedly beset by the first woman. Whether Eve or Pandora came first is irrelevant. They will be remembered as the ones responsible for ruining man and mankind forever. However, both stories should be explored to determine if the myths hold some truth or if it just the result of a sexist storyteller in a male dominated society during biblical times. .
In the story of Adam and Eve, woman is created merely from the rib of Adam. In the book of Genesis, it says, "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.""(Genesis, 2:21). Since man was created in the image of God, Eve should not be held completely accountable as the root of all evil. We can derive from this story, however, that because Eve was made from only part of Adam, that she is the weaker sex. Once the serpent had swayed her judgment to indulge in tasting the forbidden fruit, it is thought that she used her charm and grace to persuade Adam to do likewise. The ultimate source of evil was not actually Eve, but the serpent. The serpent, in my opinion, should be the one viewed as cruel and unjust. Eve had no intent on eating the fruit if the serpent didn't try to persuade her. One also has to wonder if the serpent had tried to tempt Adam and if he would have been swayed just the same as Eve. Who is to say that if the roles were reversed that Adam would not have persuaded Eve just the same? Adam ate the fruit after just a little coaxing from Eve, so in my opinion, he was just as at fault as Eve.
