There is something tender and kindly in this myth; it represents woman as man would have her, pure as the ivory, modestly arrayed, simple, and delighted with small trifles, birds, and pebbles, and flowers--a thing of beauty and a joy for ever. But Hesiod gives a widely different account of the creation of woman. According to him, she was sent in mockery by Zeus to be a scourge to man:-- The Sire who rules the earth and sways the pole Had spoken; laughter fill’d his secret soul: He bade the crippled god his hest obey, And mould with tempering water plastic clay; With human nerve and human voice invest The limbs elastic, and the breathing breast; Fair as the blooming goddesses above, A virgin’s likeness with the looks of love. He bade Minerva teach the skill that sheds A thousand colours in the gliding threads; He call’d the magic of love’s golden queen To breathe around a witchery of mien, And eager passion’s never-sated flame, And cares of dress that prey upon the frame; Bade Hermes last endue, with craft refined Of treacherous manners, and a shameless mind. Hesiod, _Erga_, 61-79. If such was the Greek theory of the creation of woman, it speaks ill for the Greek men; for woman is ever what man makes her. If he chooses her to be giddy and light and crafty, giddy, light, and crafty will she become; but if he demands of her to be what God made her, modest, and thrifty, and tender, such she will ever prove. This our grand old Northern forefathers knew, and they made her creation a sacred matter, and fashioned her from a nobler stock than man. He was of the ash, she of the elm; they called the first woman Embla, or Emla, which means a laborious female--from the root _amr_, _aml_, _ambl_, signifying “work.” “One day as the sons of Bör were walking along the sea-beach, they found two stems of wood, out of which they shaped a man and a woman. The first, Odin, infused into them life and spirit; the second, Vili, endowed them with reason and the power of motion; the third, Ve, gave them speech and features, hearing and vision.” This reminds one of the ancient Iranian myth of Ahoura Mazda creating the first pair, Meschia and Meschiane, from the Beivas tree. But the Scandinavians also spoke of three primeval mothers: Edda (great-grandmother), Amma (grandmother), and Mother, from whom sprang the three classes of thrall, churl, and earl. It is noticeable that these primeval women are represented as good housewives in the venerable Rîgsmàl, which describes the wanderings of the god Heimdal, under the name of Rîg. The deity comes to the hut of Edda, and at once-- From the ashes she took a loaf, Heavy and thick, with bran mixed; More beside she laid upon the board; There is set a bowl of broth on the table; There is a calf boiled, and cates the best. Then he goes to the house of Amma, the wife of Afi.