Different Eves By Daniel Boyarin Analysis

From the dawn of time scriptures and other writings meant to be objective in nature have reflected, if not influenced, the paradigm at the moment of their creation. Reading anything of age requires strongly digesting the norms and nuances of the time, while also recognizing that in doing so applying one’s own current views is a necessity of applying the text to one’s life. One persistent, but negative, view that has both reflected and influenced times is the role of women - particularly concerning their place in reference to their sexuality. Scripture, often reflecting antiquities lack of gender equality, has the unfortunate ability to be interpreted time and time again as hard evidence of a woman’s need to be submissive sexual or that women
The story of Lilith, Adam’s first wife, comes to us interpreted by Daniel Boyarin in his writings on Different Eves. Lilith was “divorced” by Adam and shunned from the garden because of her sexual choices - viewed as rebellious and unacceptable (Boyarin, Different Eves, p.96). In terms of these sexual positions, it is implied Lilith wanted to be on top or was otherwise sexually more dominant than Adam wanted. However, Boyarin (p.96) suggests the issue could be interpreted as simply wanting “sexual parity,” and God, realizing his mistake in making her desire this, creates a more dormant Eve for Adam. Either way, both Eve and Lilith fall into the trap of sexual deviancy. Lilith’s crimes forefront and more obvious - being sexually ambitious from the start, but Eve’s are a bit subtler. Eve’s sexual transgression is shedding her submissive nature for the same intellectual space that Lilith so occupied; straying away from her husband's will and commands and dooming mankind to
Prometheus, having stolen the fire from the Gods, sparks a complex and considerably thought-provoking action from Zeus. He, through the commission of his children and fellow Gods, has Pandora created, the earth's first woman. As Boyarin points out, Pandora is created for an antithetical reason when compared to Eve, as a punishment, whereas Eve was made in accompaniment to Adam (Different Eves, p.97). This can be a stronger argument for the inheritance of specific characteristics of the first woman ancestor. The initial creation was for malignancy, and unfortunately for all women to follow, they inherit the objective nature of Pandora’s existence. Reading on Eve, there is at least a strong argument an open-minded reader can make for a basis of equality and strong benevolent themes for the original woman - despite harsher interpretations being available. With Pandora, though, finding light at the end of the sexist tunnel is harder. In contrast to Eve, Pandora is what Boyarin call an “artifice,” making her hardly more than an object. She lacks warmth, intellect, reasoning, and humanness in general. In fact, Pandora’s entire artifice existence is a trap for men and the fabric of women's sexuality in antiquitous interpretation - trap