Pandora. Created as a counterpart to the male, her…

Pandora. Portrayed as the antithesis of man, her nature is dark and destructive. This Hesiodic characterisation, based on biological determinism, would come to be imposed on all women and serve to justify patriarchy. For the only way to contain the danger posed by women is through their domestication and taming by means of marriage.
This desire, moreover, is linked to the greater pleasure that sex afforded him. The paradigm of this latter theme is represented in the myth of Tiresias. The seer was the only mortal capable of living as both a man and a woman. That is why Zeus and Hera summoned him to Olympus to resolve the dispute over which sex derived greater pleasure from sexual intercourse. The seer stated that women enjoyed nine out of every ten parts, whilst men enjoyed only one. This domination was to be effected through marriage, a patriarchal symbol of civilisation that established gender roles. Relegated to the home, to the private and domestic sphere, women would fulfil their civic duty: motherhood. Thus, the spectre of Pandora was banished, for marriage would neutralise all the dangers that women represented. Their deceptive voice would be silenced. Her lack of restraint would not affect the political arena, as she was deprived of rights. Her sensuality and lust yielded to marriage, which would grant the husband control over sexuality and offspring. Thus, marriage is the great civilising force of the patriarchal order, which would even serve to tame the greatest terror of all: the Amazons. Indeed, around midday, the Amazons would do the following: they would usually disperse individually or in pairs, moving a fair distance apart from one another to attend to their needs. And when the Scythians realised this, they did the same. These sexual unions became so frequent that the Scythians and the Amazons eventually decided to merge their camps. Like that of the Greeks, marriage among the Amazons would become a means of exchanging and passing on wealth from one generation to the next.