Lena Singh, Period 6, 10/27/22

 Lena Singh, Period 6, 10/27/22

Modern Mythology 2023

Literacy & Learning

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.

On 10/13/23, our class talked about Eve and Pandora. We talked about women being the root of all evil. In the process of reading about the two women, I found out more about Hera's personality and her story. 

Now I claimed to know a lot about Greek mythology, but when I read about Hera, I realized I was wrong. I knew very little about Greek mythology. I knew about Zeus and Hades and Poseidon and Aphrodite, but I didn’t actually know their origins or what their character was like. If Hera wished to keep her husband loyal and went out of her way to make sure he was, she was ruthless and a desperate woman to have stayed with him. He had countless affairs and no one talked about that! 

When I read the story of how Eve was tricked into taking the fruit of sex from a serpent in the heavely garden and giving it to Adam as well, which led to her ruining the life of future people - I was immediately irritated. Firstly, I’d heard from boys in their side conversations in middle school, that Eve is where they get their Adam’s apple. And I was surprised as well as curious to dive into this new piece of information. However, I also questioned why they all used Eve in a bad context. I wasn’t curious enough to find out. Now I’ve read the story of Eve and Adam and I still harbor some confusion. If Eve was as foolish as she is characterized as, maybe Adam should have had the sense to not take a bite as well. Why was he so easily tempted? Additionally, I found that the scientific reason for an Adam's apple was that: “Everyone's larynx grows during puberty, but a girl's larynx doesn't grow as much as a boy's does. That's why boys have Adam's apples.” I understand these are Greek Myths and I also understand that they might not be intended to be realistic. Nevertheless, myths are also intended to have some sort of realistic characteristics - not all parts of them are fiction. People clearly haven’t understood that and have taken it as an excuse to taunt and criticize women nowadays. I did think the story was innovative in its concept, but yet again the woman became the one to blame in the end. Because men have come first and because men write such stories and histories.  

I read about Pandora when I was in 7th grade. Then I was thinking about how creative and enlightening such a story was. How I would like to write something like this that explained one of the world’s creations or happenings. Now I read it again and raised my eyebrows in annoyance as well as surprise. When Zeus made a new creature of temptation, it was a woman, who is blamed for the curiosity that all humans have. Though she was given a box that Zeus knew she would open and when she did, every evil was released into the world, but hope was not. Is Pandora appreciated for that? When explaining why heaven is not accessible to us, we blame Eve. When explaining why sorrow and evil exists, we blame Pandora. For everything that we cannot see and do, we turn to the woman. To release our frustrations, we try to make the woman our easy target. And yet, women are the one ones that stand on pedestals with their welcoming smiles and freedom in their hands. Is that because if those freedoms are taken away, you will point a finger at women? Is that because a woman seems more inviting than a man? I do not believe we put a woman on a pedestal with good intentions. 

Women cannot do anything right without being criticized. You call a mother or a housewife - lazy, manipulative, and imcompetent. Though when she goes out into the workforce, she is suddenly too innocent, too dumb, and inattentative to her family. When she wears revealing clothes, she should not wonder why men catcall her. She should put a blindfold on her eyes, a tape across her mouth, and put cotton inside her ears. That is when she will be a true woman. 

Needless to say, reading these two stories, I realized women are the scapegoat, the fool, and the innocent in every old and traditional story. However, if you call them evil, you shall call them powerful too. If Eve could simply tempt Adam into taking the apple and Hera could make every woman who had an affair with Zeus suffer, they could have done so much more. Evil doesn’t always have to be a bad characterization when you know how to wield it. Especially in such a cruel and changing world, evil is always necessary to counter evil. As one can tell, I’m a big believer in fighting fire with fire. And women need that fire most.

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

One thing that stood out about our discussion as a class, was the talk of how patriarchy also paints a woman in just as bad a manner. I never thought about how there was never a question of who the real mother was, but always if the father was the biological one. It never occurred to me that questioning the father was a reflection on the mother; that she was unfaithful. Actually, in some sense I might’ve found shows that featured “who's the father” entertaining or sensical. It didn’t occur to me that this was another act disguised as the act of bashing women. This led me to understand the relationships that the children had with their mothers versus their fathers. Cronus was prophesied to be killed by Zeus, Zeus by his child, and so the cycle continues. Yet Rhea saved her son, Zeus, to which he avenged her and his siblings. And similar are the stories of other mothers like Gaea. It is where women are there to be gentle and nourishing, letting the fathers and sons handle the business of leading the world. 

It is so similar to Hindu Mythology now that I look at it. The three Gods, Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, that run the world are all men. When God is only supposed to be a spirit. And the female Gods are still revered, but are more elegant and represent significant yet not as significant as the “manly” things. For example, Mother Durga, who appears scary as well as gentle. She is the Goddess of war as well as peace, destruction as well as motherhood. Now it seems that they could not let a Goddess simply represent destruction. They had to make her two sided so she represented femininity well. 

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

The idea that the world builds about women from creation stories like this, is enough for me to look at everyone and everything differently. Creation stories meaning, how women came to be and what they did in the beginning of the world. If man was supposed to be superior, someone had to be blamed for all the sinners and evil that exists. Women then became the fools that tempt men into becoming fools too. It affects women because it makes them talk less, less confident, and doubt if they are meaningful enough to exist without being judged. Mythology is also where religions sprout from. And if you see some religions like Christianity, it seems that salvation is only a man’s right. Is that because of what Eve did? Is Eve the evil and Adam the good? With these kinds of understandings, you are not only able to learn, but you are able to share and teach that knowledge. 

If we look deeper into myths on such women, perhaps a different perspective can show that women were made or influenced to do what they did by or because of a higher being, rather because of their own gender.