Gender, Creation Myths and their Reception in Western Civilization

Prometheus, Pandora, Adam and Eve

Lisa Maurice, Tovi Bibring, Lisa Maurice, Tovi Bibring

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781350212862
• eBook ISBN: 9781350212848
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Collections
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume offers an instructive comparative perspective on the Judaic, Christian, Greek and Roman myths about the creation of humans in relation to each other, as well as a broad overview of their enduring relevance in the modern Western world and its conceptions of gender and identity. Taking the idea that the way in which a society regards humanity, and especially the roots of humanity, is crucial to an understanding of that society, it presents the different models for the creation and nature of mankind, and their changing receptions over a range of periods and places. It thereby demonstrates that the myths reflect fundamental continuities, evolutions and developments across cultures and societies: in no context are these more apparent than with regard to gender. Chapters explore the role of gender in Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian creation myths and their reception traditions, demonstrating how perceptions of 'male' and 'female' dating back to antiquity have become embedded in, and significantly influenced, subsequent perceptions of gender roles. Focusing on the figures of Prometheus, Pandora, Adam and Eve and their instantiations in a broad range of narratives and media from antiquity to the present day, they examine how variations on these myths reflect the concerns of the societies producing them and the malleability of the stories as they are recast to fit different contexts and different audiences.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Visual Symbolism: The Iconography of Creation
• 1 The Use of Prometheus as an Exemplar in Third-Century Rome
• 2 Innocent in Sense and in Body: Adam and Eve in their Mandorlas (Fourth Century–Thirteenth Century)
• 3 Prometheus Plasticator: Receptions of the Creation Mytheme in Art
• Part II Creation Narratives as a Model for Marriage
• 4 Eve and Pandora: Myths in Dialogue
• 5 Tempting Treasures and Seductive Snakes: Presenting Eve and Pandora for the Youngest Readers
• 6 Thematic Intercultural Correspondence on the Creation of the Perfect Woman and the Falling in Love with Her (Ovid, Ibn Hazm, Ibn Hasdai, Ibn Zakbal and Alharizi)
• Part III Pandora, Eve and the Feminine Ideal
• 7 Adam and Eve: Reflections on a Relationship
• 8 Eve, the First Woman: On Choice and Responsibility
• 9 Absolving Eve: Medieval Women Writers Remodelling the Creation and the Fall
• Part IV Ideological Manipulations of the Creation Narrative
• 10 A Story of Adam and Eve for Soviet Children and Adults: The Divine Comedy, a Puppet Show Based on the Bible
• 11 Gender Archetypes and National Agendas in the Hebrew Creation Myth of the Daffodil
• 12 Genesis 3.15 and 16 and the State of Israel
• Part V Postmodern Receptions
• 13 ‘The Beautiful Trap Inside Us’: Pandoran Science Fiction and Posthuman Personhood
• 14 Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and the Human Pandora
• 15 Pandora’s Split: Reading the Myth of Pandora in Cruel Beauty
• 16 Adam the Alien, Eve the Robot: The Reinterpretation of Adam, Eve, Prometheus and Pandora in Japanese Manga and Anime
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• INDEX
• Copyright