Greek Mythology and the Human Assessment

Using this as a foundation, the Ancient Greeks built a society in which women had few rights and were basically the property of men.

But women were only one aspect of Greek culture, a culture that seemed to be based on pessimistic beginnings. Hesiod's "The Five Ages of Man" describe a period in which the world slowly devolved from a paradise into the chaos and horror of the ancient world. The world went from a Golden Age, to a Silver Age, a Bronze Age, the Age of Heroes and finally the ancient world. And the fate of man deteriorated with each passing age. But not only was the world better in the past, the afterlife was also much better. Man went from a death that was little more than sleep, through several stages each more dire than the previous age, and finally to the horrors of Hades. The myth of the Five Ages of Man seems to describe the fall of mankind and the worsening fate that had arisen because of this fall.

Overall, the Ancient Greeks did not have an optimistic view of the human condition.Women were placed on the Earth to plague mankind with trouble, and the world itself was the result of an ever decreasing situation in which mankind is forced to exist. The Ancient Greeks believed they were living in a time where things were better in the past and their fate was limited. Human beings were forced to live in an imperfect world, with women who were created as part of a punishment, and had very little to look forward to even after death. Both the myth of Pandora and the Five Ages of Man provide a view of the Ancient Greek's that is based on a pessimistic look at the world......