Title: 28th October, 2006
Author: Two

28^th October, 2006
Mythology, Religion, and  Philosophy

Reading for Today:
•	Eve:The Mother of All Living, Baring and Cashford, (C.P.) pp 13-22.
–	Note:  not the whole article!

Reading for Next Week:
•	Tuesday:
•	Augustine “The Problem of Evil” CP p.29-32
•	Gratian “Warning to Bishops” CP p.39-40

•	Thursday:
•	 Aquinas “How Evil is Caused” CP p43-48
•	Gregory IX “Witches of Stedlingerlaud” CP p.41

Genesis I&II
•	In Genesis I, man and woman are created simultaneously by God from the earth.
•	In Genesis II, woman is created by God from man’s rib.
•	In Genesis III, things go badly wrong in the Garden.

First of Two First Women:
•	Baring and Cashford report that Lilith was created in an attempt to make sense of the difference between Gen.I & Gen.II.
•	Originally a Sumerian figure, “Lil” (Sum: air, storm) who was the Queen of Heaven.
•	“Lil” also Sumero-Akkadian word for “dust cloud” synonymous with “ghost”

Lilith’s Nature:
•	Lilith created from earth (like Adam) and therefore equal - but the earth was impure.
•	Her refusal to assume the ‘proper position’ beneath Adam was seen as insubordination.
•	Her very nature was tainted (both material nature and the nature of her character).

Pursuit of Lilith:
•	Lilith quits the garden, goes into the wild, and gives birth to a brood of demons.
•	Three angels sent to bring her back, they argue with her, threaten to drown her.
•	She threatens back, claiming she will take the live of human children.

Lilith’s deal with the Angels:
•	“Whenever I shall see you or your names or your images on an amulet, I shall do no harm to the child” (B&C, p511R, CP p13).
•	Thereafter she stalks the world searching for children who deserve to die.
•	Death is a punishment for sin, and Lilith comes to be associated with with night, death, fear, and evil.

Lilith’s Legacy:
•	“It is hard to escape the conclusion that Lilith became an image of denied sexual desire, repressed and projected on to the female, who thereby becomes the seducer.” 
•	CP p.13R

Woman Remade:  Eve
•	Made from Adam’s rib.
•	They in fact, therefore, share a part of their nature.
•	Woman is literally a secondary creation, the  product of body, not the direct product of God.

Fallen Nature:
•	Eve breaks the only commandment in the Garden and eats the forbidden fruit.
•	Adam and Eve “saw” their nakedness in the garden after the fall from grace.
•	Demonization of sexuality, bodily nature.
•	Introduction of evil into world comes simultaneously with knowledge of good and evil 

Pandora - ‘All Gifts’
•	In works of the author Hesiod (700 BCE) Pandora was created by Zeus as punishment for men (fashioned by Hephaestus)
•	All Olympians gave her a gift in her nature.
•	She was the mother of all womankind, and brought woes into the world.

Origin of Woman in Greece:
•	Hephaestus the Smith makes Pandora’s Body

All Gifts:
•	“But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction…” CP p.16

The Trap is Set:
•	After her creation, the Olympians each give her a gift of their own nature

The Trap is Sprung:
•	Rosso Fiorentino’s rendering of Pandora.
•	The opening of the jar unleashes trouble into the world.
•	Here, the troubles are the 7 Deadly Sins

Three Women:
•	Lilith: demonic from moment of her creation, refuses to submit to the commandments of Adam.
•	Eve:  brought death, sin and sorrow into the world by breaking the commandment of God.
•	Pandora:  sent to Earth as punishment with all the gifts of the Gods - good and evil.

One Character:
•	Associations with being secondary creations.
•	Natures are more crucially connected with body.
•	Characteristics of deception
•	Elements of sensuality, physicality, sexuality
•	These may have been cultural beliefs to begin with, but cultures make religions – and religions reinforce cultural beliefs.

From St. John Chrysostom
•	“What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours…”

END.