The feminist writer Kate Millett asserts that although the woman may have been allocated a role no less significant than that of the man by ancient societies with their cult of fertility, over time the role of the woman in procreation was de-emphasised and new religions emerged in which the supremacy of a male God (or gods), became the basis upon which a patriarchal social system, rooted in notions of female inferiority, was constructed and validated (1969: Ch. 2). For example, in Greek mythology, as recounted in Hesiod's Theogeny, the discredited fertility goddess Pandora is sent by the supreme god Zeus to mankind, bearing a sealed jar which, when opened as a result of her curiosity, releases into the world the evils of old age, poverty and sickness. From Pandora springs "the damnable race of women--a plague which men must live with" (Millett, 1969: Ch. 2; Miles, 1999: 37). In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the story of origins is not dissimilar, and provokes Millett's observation that "Patriarchy has God on its side" (Millett, 1969: Ch. 2). In the beginning was God, and from the beginning God was perceived as male since He created the first man Adam in His own image. Woman, on the other hand, was apparently an afterthought, created by God from one of Adam's ribs, so that Adam might have a "helper like himself" (The Holy Bible Douay Version, Genesis: 1-27, 2-20). But woman succumbed to temptation by the serpent, ate of the fruit forbidden by God, and persuaded her husband to do likewise. Consequently, God cast Adam out of Paradise into a world of toil: "to till the earth from which he was taken" (Genesis: 3-23). God made garments of skins to cover the shame which the woman had brought upon herself and Adam. Moreover, He committed the woman to motherhood, under the authority of her husband: "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee" (Genesis: 3-16). Adam called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living.
