EVA, EVE is the first woman. There are two stories of the creation of Eve and Adam. The first tells that God created male and female together in His own image, and Eve is not named in this version (Genesis 1:27); the second tells that God created man out of the dust, placed him in Eden, then created woman out of Adam's rib while he slept. Adam called her Eve because she is the mother of all the living (Genesis 2:7-24, 3:20). The commandment to abstain from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was given to Adam (Genesis 2:17). The serpent persuaded Eve to disobey God and to eat the fruit; she then gave it to Adam, and he also ate it (Genesis 3:1-7). The Biblical story is the basis for the medieval antifeminist view of Eve in particular and of woman in general. Medieval commentators present her with a dual nature. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) says that Eve represents life as well as calamity and woe, namely death (Etymologiae VII.vi.5-6). Augustine of Hippo (354-430) says that the creation of Eve symbolizes the creation of the Church (City of God XII.17).
Satan beguiled Eve and knows well how to make women sin, MLT 365-371. The story of the Fall shows Eve as the first wicked wife in Jankyn's book, WBP 713-718. God made Eve for Adam's comfort (Genesis 2:18), MerchT 1322-1329. The Second Nun calls herself "unworthy sone of Eve," SNP 62, evidence perhaps that the tale was not composed for her. Brown suggests that the phrase comes from the Office of Compline in the Hours of the Virgin, familiar to the Nun. The story of the Fall and its interpretation, ParsT 320-329, show that Eve stands for the delights of the flesh, ParsT 515-516. The antifeminist tradition is exemplified in Jankyn's "Book of Wikked Wyves," WBP 669-756. This anthology consisted of Ovid's Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), the Parables of Solomon, Jerome's Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian) of the late fourth century, Theophrastus's Aureolus liber de nuptiis (The Golden Book of Marriage, of uncertain date and authorship), Walter Map's Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum Philosophum ne Uxorem ducat (Valerius's Dissuasion of Rufus Not to Marry, c. 1180-1183). The Parson says that the first sin is gluttony since Adam and Eve ate the fruit, ParsT 816-818 [Adam1: Caym]
Eva appears twice in medial positions, MLT 368; WBP 715; Eve appears twice in final rhyming position, MerchT 1329; SNP 62, and in the prose of ParsT 20-329.
