Compare the portrayal of women in Hesiod and Ovid creation myths to explain what these similarities tell us about the two belief systems.

I am going to talk primarily of the myth of Pandora by these two authors. There are many different creation myths surrounding women, as many key figures in Greek mythology are female goddesses, such as Gaia, the earth goddess; Hera, the queen of the gods; Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and many more. But Pandora is unique in both Hesiod and Ovidian creation myths because she is a human woman created by the gods. Ovid's "Works and Days" explain why she's called Pandora—doron means gift, pan means all. The names of Greek mythological characters often held surface meanings like this that help the reader understand their significance right away. As Ovid explains it, she is the a woman created from all the gifts of the gods. The box she carries, then, is the punishment for man. But in Hesiod's "Theogony," only Athena and Hephaistus are involved in creating her. She is made to be very tempted, and therefore in Hesiod's creation myth, Pandora herself is the punishment. These are two different views on a single character, but they both end in the same way: Pandora opens her box, and releases every terrible and horrible thing upon the earth, shutting the lid when only Hope remains. It's possible that this myth is a way to explain exactly why Greek society was patriarchal, in that women are easily tempted and the root of all evil. Though the two representations understand the cosmological reason behind this societal constant differently, they come to the same conclusion and help the modern reader to conceptualize Greek society from the point of their creation myths.