Patriarchy.

Yahweh, the Sky God, kept his human slaves in ignorance, forbidding them the fruit of knowledge. His consort Ashera, in the form of a snake (symbol of wisdom and of the Earth-Goddess) persuades them otherwise so they can be free. But later, when the culture became more strictly patriarchal, Ashera was erased, her fanes destroyed and the story re-written so that freedom became exile.