Where did the very first ideas about women being naturally bad come from? Before the Bible?

Question

Were Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Plutarch etc the first people to say they were. Would it be fair to say that was where the ideas came from?

If not, where did they first come from, can't be Bible, that was after Aristotle etc and they were already saying it.

Feel Free: Are you kidding? You should do my sociology degree! All the theorists before the latter part of the 20th century have been saying how women are naturally evil, cause of ther fall of mankind etc.

I know most of the names, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, Rousseau, Kant, Freud, etc etc but where did the ideas originate from? They were there before Christianity but where were the very first ideas coming from, was it the classical writers I just mentioned, or was it around before then?

Just wanted to say, I am a Muslim and what people can't seem to grasp is that Islam-the actual religion and the Quranic text has NEVER negated women. There are ideas all over the internet, false, which claim that women can be stoned for adultery, men cannot, etc, basically saying in the Quran it says women can't do anything, in fact, it is the same for both. Also, I agree Muslim men (like men all over the world of other relegions) oppress women. They use certains elements and ideas to justify what they do, that is how white middle class heterosexual men oppressed blacks, homosexuals, the poor, women etc. Come one haven't we learnt anything all these years people?!

Answer 1

In an historical and written format, the concept of a female being 'bad' as opposed to the male 'good', is probably of Greek origin. The Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle [a pupil of Socrates], based their ideas of female = bad upon the fact that ever month a woman goes through what we now call euphemistically a "bad week". This set women apart from men, very firmly, since the Greeks believed that something 'bad' was happening during that week, which was somehow a mystery to them. They did not have the benefit of modern science and medicine.

Answer 2

I have certainly never come across anything earlier, so I am really interested in following your answers.
According to Robert Graves, all the stories of rape and abduction in Greek mythology were the mythologising of the male takeover of female dominated religions and the conquering of peoples who practised them by patriarchal societies.

What I found very disturbing is that this notion (women are bad) still has such a grip on the main world religions, justifying witholding basic human rights and even the ill-treatment of women for trivial 'offences'.

Answer 3

I don't know of the origens of the concept that women are evil but I do know I have independantly come to that conclusion myself based on my own experience of the scheming, plotting and manipulative gender.

Also, how can you say Islam does not negate women when the evidence to the contrary is staggeringly overwhelming?

Answer 4

"Recent archaeologists like Marija Gimbutas have argued for a widespread matriarchal culture in pre-Indo-European Old Europe of the Neolithic. J.F. del Giorgio in "The Oldest Europeans" has opened a new view in the same line, observing that there was a widespread fall in women's rights from East to West, in synchonicity with the Indo-European invasions. He argues strongly that colleges of priestesses were prosecuted and replaced by colleges of priests, based in archaeological and historical evidence and relating it to ancient myths."

As the Indo-European invasions run quiet parallel with the Neolithic Agriculture Revolution, it maybe has to do something with the change of gender roles from hunter-gatherer society to agriculture society, and the parallel changes in religions.

Answer 5

I think that this might come from one of the alternative gospels which give an account of Lilith, the first wife of Adam. Whe was reputed to be the personification of evil. It possibly explains why Islam treats its women as 2nd class citizens.

Answer 6

The vileness of the female of the species was first identified by a nameless Greek who warned all ancients to be afraid and wary of:-

Fire, woman and the sea.(direct translation from ancient Greek proverb)

Answer 7

Acording to the Greek Mythology, the women were a punishment made by the gods

Answer 8

"being naturally bad?"

as in like evil...?

because honestly ive never heard that before.