Evil In Hesiod's Ambiguous View Of Woman

Within Marquardt, P's, “Hesiod's Ambiguous View of Woman” Marquardt, P suggests that Pandora is not a “conspirator in evil works”, but a earth goddess who is nether evil or good. Marquardt, P makes Pandora or as a necessary being that gives men hardships, but also a difficult way out. What Marquardt is saying is that Pandora gives meaning to life, a objective for all men to accomplish. Marquardt constantly refers to Pandora as a goddess of the earth and The pithos as the earth itself. He questions that Hesiod associated the pithos with Pandora naturally. The pithos as writen in the Article could be viewed as a symbol of the earth. The pithos “as a large earthenware jar for the storage of grain and other provisions, it frequently rested in
the ground and was used , at least in early times, as a receptacle for the dead”. If Pandora is in fact the earth goddess opening up the pithos jar would be opening up the earth. The story of Pandora is that she opened up the pithos and let out everything that would cause humans suffering except hope which got trapped in and humans lost hope. Marquardt links hope to Eris and just like the story states Eris is hidden in the earth. With Eris hidden in the earth men now have a “positive incentive to the kind of toil and honest competition which leads to success. With the authors points Pandora can be viewed as a earth goddess that made humans work and gave humans hope. This article is interesting, it opens up a new view point about Pandora who was suppose to be this gift of evil to balance the good of fire I wouldn't say this article is helpful in understanding Pandora though.
No one can no for certain what the main author was thinking when writing about Pandora at the time, most stories state she is pure evil and some not so much, but nothing can be perfectly correct. With this article and the other articles I have read viewing it at different view points it raises more questions about who Pandora is then answers. This article is interesting nevertheless, the author dug up facts that can support Pandora being a goddess of the earth. The fact that the pithos can be considered the earth and Eris being a incentive for humans supports both claims that Pandora could be a goddess and not completely evil. The single most important thing in this article though is the fact that the author was able to see another way to view Pandora other then just a evil being. Pandora has always been told as a person who gave humans suffering and as a punishment from Zeus. The authors way of seeing Pandora as not just a evil being may bring more questions, but this is a interesting interpretation of Pandora's
story