Surviving from Mesopotamia, the earliest civilization, the tale "Gilgamesh" displays a negative depiction of women. It is this negativity, represented in the earliest known literature that sets a tone of prejudice against women for all civilizations and eras that follow.
To start the story, King Gilgamesh claims marital rights to all engaged women, displaying an immediately lack of respect and consideration for females. When the Goddess Ishatar creates Enkidu, (a compainion for Gilgamesh) he is then stripped of his animal-like skills by a harlot. The loss of Enkidu's natural instincts paints the harlot as one who poisons and curses Enkidu, further dipicting woman as corrupter's of man.
Next, when Gilgamesh "heaps insults upon" Ishatar the Goddess cries to the God Anu, demanding revenge for her hurt feelings. Here, Ishatar does not display the behavior of a mature goddess but instead a whimsical, emotionally fragile girl demanding retribution because a man does not reciprocate her affections. The juvenile demands of Ishatar lead to the death of Enkidu and ultimately direct Gilgamesh to his grave.
Often the tale of Gilgamesh is discussed in a religious light; its polytheistic basis helps explain ancient interpretations of the universe. Another ancient religion, Hinduism states, "The wise are never unguarded in the (company of) females." Buddah, in a speech to King Udayana warns, "when men have close relationships with women, they have close relationships with evil" Finally, the Islamic religion stresses male domination, "the good women areobedientthose (who are not) admonish them and beat them."
The Mesopotamian culture represents women as two-faced; a prime example embodied in the fact that Ishatar is both the goddess of love (lust) and war (death). Beyond myths of immature goddesses, or niave women who unleash evil into the world (as is represented in the Greek myth of Pandora), even ancient religions, spanning over a variety of different cultures and countries stresses a strong distrust for women.
Overall, primordial literature paints women as immature and destructive. It is obvious from these early writings and stories that men have deemed women responsible for nothing but corruption, suffering and death since the beginning of time. Furthermore, many of these tales and stories show an additional generalization that women are weak, illogical and desperate for male guidance and wisdom.