The Origins of Eve

In the beginning…

One of the wonderful aspects of writing a story like Original Sinner is the research. It gave me so much pleasure to gather all the colourful threads, sort them, and weave a new story.

I see the story of Adam and Eve as a myth. A sacred allegory of the struggle against our baser natures. It was easier to blame Eve, to ‘extract’ that flaw from Adam and attribute it to her. Done to ease the conscience of men through the ages. Catholicism says we are born guilty; Protestant belief is that we have only the propensity to sin. Interestingly, in Islam God forgave both Adam and Eve and there is no concept of original sin. My favourite myth is the Swahili interpretation where Eve is expelled from Eden for eating the fruit, and Adam chose to eat the fruit afterwards, and followed Eve to protect her on Earth.

The story of humans crafted from earth and falling from grace is not unique to western civilisation. Nearly every ancient culture shared similar creation stories. Every society has struggled with the big questions—where did we come from and why is life like this?
Babylonian mythology credits the gods Marduk and Tiamat with creating heaven and earth, and life. In China, it was the goddess Nüwa who designed humans from mud. Egyptians had the ram-headed god Khmun throw people on a potter’s wheel. According to ancient Sumer, it was the goddess Namma who placed clay in her womb and bore humankind. The Greeks blamed Prometheus, the trickster, for fashioning humans from clay.

Christianity’s version of creation replaced Prometheus, the trickster, with Satan in the form of a serpent. The gods punished both of them for breaking the rules; Prometheus had his liver eaten daily for bringing fire to humans, while Satan was cursed to crawl on his belly for offering knowledge. Both forms of enlightenment.
Continuing the analogy, Zeus was so angry with Prometheus he created Pandora with her ‘urn’ of miseries. Greek society was highly misogynistic and relished the idea of a woman bringing evil into a perfect world. For centuries Christianity blamed Eve for all that ails Man. For that, she was punished with the pain of childbirth, and ordered to obey her husband in all things.

 The times are a-changing, I hope.