pandora Pandora The First woman on earth Presented by Maqsood Hasni Free abuzar barqi kutab’khana August 2017

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 250 ff (trans. Weir
Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :

"Prometheus : Yes, I caused mortals to cease foreseeing

their doom (moros).f Chorus : Of what sort was the cure

that you found for this affliction?

Prometheus : I caused blind hopes (elpides) to dwell

within their breasts.
Chorus : A great benefit was this you gave to mortals."
[N.B. This is presumably a reference to Pandora's jar, a
curse concocted by Zeus to punish mankind for the theft
of fire. Prometheus seems to be saying that he was the
one who stayed Hope inside the jar, when the other evils
escaped.]

Aeschylus, Fragment 204 (from Proclus, Commentary on
Hesiod’s Works and Days 156) :

"A mortal woman from out a seed moulded of clay [i.e
Pandora]."

Sophocles, Pandora (lost play) (C5th B.C.) :
Sophocles wrote a Satyr-play entitled Pandora or
Sphyrocopi which dramatised the story of the first
woman. Plato, Protagoras 320c - 322a (trans. Lamb)

(Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :

"Prometheus stole the mechanical arts of Hephaistos
and Athene, and fire with them (they could neither have
been acquired nor used without fire), and gave them to
man . . . But Prometheus is said to have been afterwards
prosecuted for theft, owing to the blunder of Epimetheus
[i.e. because he accepted Pandora from Zeus]."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 46 (trans. Aldrich)
(Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :

"Prometheus had a son Deukalion, who was king of the
lands round Phthia and was married to Pyrrha, the
daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, the first woman
created by the gods."

Euphorion of Chalcis, Fragments (trans. Page, Vol. Select
Papyri III, No. 121 (2b)) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.): "Pandora,
donor of evil (kakodôros), man’s sorrow self-imposed."

Strabo, Geography 9. 5. 23 (trans. Jones) (Greek
geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :

"[The region of] Thessalia. But speaking of it as a whole, I
may say that in earlier times it was called Pyrrhaia,
after Pyrrha the wife of Deukalion . . . But some writers,

dividing it into two parts, say that Deukalion obtained the
portion towards the south and called it Pandora after his
mother [i.e. his mother-in-law], and that the other part
fell to Haimon, after whom it was called Haimonia, but
that the former name was changed to Hellas, after Hellen
the son of Deukalion, and the latter to Thessalia, after the
son of Haimon." [N.B. Pyrrha was the daughter of
Pandora, and wife of Deukalion. Deukalion named parts of
the region of Thessalia after his wife and mother-in-law.]

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 24. 7 (trans. Jones)
(Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :

"On the pedestal [of the statue of Athena on the
Akropolis, Athens] is the birth of Pandora in relief.
Hesiod and others have sung how this Pandora was the
first woman; before Pandora was born there was as yet
no womankind."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 142 (trans. Grant) (Roman
mythographer C2nd A.D.) :

"Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first fashioned men from
clay. Later Vulcanus [Hephaistos], at Jove’s [Zeus']
command, made a woman’s form from clay. Minerva

[Athene] gave it life, and the rest of the gods each gave
come other gift. Because of this they named her
Pandora. She was given in marriage to Prometheus’
brother Epimetheus. Pyrrha was her daughter, and was

said to be the first mortal born." Nonnus, Dionysiaca 7. 7
ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :

"[Aion, Father Time, addresses Zeus :] `But, some may
say, a medicine [Hope] has been planted to make
long-suffering mortals forget their troubles, to save
their lives. Would that Pandora had never opened the
heavenly cover of that jar--she the sweet bane of
mankind!'"

o Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C8th B.C.

o Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.

o Hesiod, Works & Days - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.

o Greek Elegaic Theognis, Fragments – Greek Elegaic
C6th B.C.

o Aesop, Fables - Greek Fables C6th B.C.

o Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound - Greek Tragedy C5th
B.C.

o Aeschylus, Fragments - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.

o Plato, Protagoras - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.

o Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd
A.D.

o Greek Papyri III Euphorion, Fragments - Greek Epic
C3rd B.C.

o Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. -
C1st A.D.

o Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue
C2nd A.D.

o Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.

o Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.

o Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.

Did Pandora bring trouble or transformation for women?
BY SANDRA GEYER MILLER, MA

When Pandora opened the box and released the spites,
was she merely the bringer of spites or the bringer of
the vessel of transformation of feminine energies?

During my studies of goddess mythology I was struck by
the myth of Pandora and her "box". Here was a myth of
the first woman that continues to haunt the image of
women even today. Foolish Pandora, who opened the
forbidden casket and released the Spites - Old Age,
Labor, Sickness, Insanity, Vice, and Passion - to spread
and cover the earth. Was she merely the bringer of
spites, the revengeful curse of Zeus, or was she as the
mother of life also bringer of the vessel of
transformation of feminine energies?

Only examination of the Greek version of the myth within
the larger framework of "creation and fall" mythic
themes, can reveal to us clues about the feminine psyche
and its evolution. All of the psychological literature of the
last twenty-five years has not dispelled the cultural and

spiritual shadow that surrounds the image of woman.

The two myths still prevalent today are the
Adam/Eve/Serpent and
Pandora/Epimetheus/Prometheus stories depicting the
first woman and the fall. In these myths the primordial
images of beauty/hag, innocence/temptation, and
obedience/disobedience are developed. With the coming
of woman, man's paradise is ruptured, and the duality of
time/eternity, good/evil and birth/death is begun. Much
has been written about the Adam and Eve story, but little
has been written about Pandora. The Greek and
Judeo-Christian versions of the Eve and Pandora myths
serve to propagandize the message of the early
patriarchy about the status of women at that time.

Forthwith he made an evil thing for men as the Price of
fire; for the very famous Limping God formed of earth
the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of Cronus willed.
And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed
her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she
spread with her hands a embroidered veil, a wonder to
see;

And she, Pallas Athene, put about her head lovely
garlands, flowers of new grown herbs.

Also she put upon her head a crown of gold which the
very famous Limping God made himself and worked with
his own hands as a favor to Zeus his father. On it was
much curious work wonderful to see; for of the many
creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most
upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices:
and great beauty shone out from it. (Evelyn-White, 1950,
pp. 120ff)

Pandora is portrayed as the product of Hephaestus'
craft and Zeus's guile, - Zeus's curse for the theft of fire
by Prometheus. She was fashioned as a bewitching
beauty endowed with gifts from all the gods and
goddesses.

Feminists have said that women today can "have it all"
which contains an element of truth, as Pandora means
"all gifts", but given the requirements of the patriarchal
society, today's Pandora can manifest only a few gifts if
she is lucky.

And as for beauty, modern day Pandora is fashioned by

the incarnate Hephaestus skilled as plastic surgeon with
liposuction, face lifts, plastic implants and body
contouring. The seductive beautification process has
become limited to the physical body. Instead of Pandora
as an image of the all-gifted, we have the anorexic,
addicted star, princess or first lady who fight the
ravages of time and duality with physical escapes. The
quasi-feminist business woman who adorns herself in
men's clothing and adopts men's behavior, crashes into
the invisible corporate barrier and is dazed and
perplexed. She doesn't realize that her male competitors
sense that it may be Pandora with her box that is
knocking on the doors of power.

The ritual of the bachelor party is still prevalent today,
where the groom is given one last good fling before he
goes to his doom. Professor Henry Higgins in the modern
musical, based on "Pygmalion", Lerner and Lowe's "My
Fair Lady" quips....

Let a woman in your life and you're plunging in a knife.
Let the others of my sex tie the knot around their necks,
I'd prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition than to

ever let a woman in my life!.....Women are irrational,
that's all there is to that. Their heads are full of cotton,
hay and rags. They're nothing but exasperating,
irritating, fascinating, calculating, agitating, maddening,
and infuriating hags! (Lerner and Lowe, 1959, p. 112)

The curse is alive today and Pandora is still the "fatal
attraction", adorned by the fashion designers whose
models may be anorexias in beauty's garb. Poor Pandora
was she really meant to become the projected vision of
an angular masculine twig with no bosom, no rounded
hip, no fertility? What has become of her magic girdle,
her crown of gold, her iridescent gown, woven by Athene
herself, the master weaver? And what of the aging crone
with Aphrodite fading who has nothing left but the blame
because she may be deserted by her husband who goes
off with another Pandora, she is left with Rhea-coronis,
the death aspect.

Owning the myth of Pandora for today's woman means to
be willing to live with the knowledge of the curses and
the gifts, to be wholly conscious of the dark and the light
side of her own psyche, and to be willing to enter into the

process of transformation of the feminine as expressed
within her and as expressed within the collective.
Without fight or flight, without revenge, without sex
change or facsimile, without taking on the appearances
or mannerisms of the masculine, each woman is
challenged as never before to embrace Pandora. To get
in touch with the inner Pandora is to embrace one's
seductress, insatiable curiosity, deceiving beauty,
cunning Trickster, spinner and weaver, politician,
creator/destroyer, daughter/mother, and virgin/whore
parts.

For the hope shut up within the box is delusive Hope to
keep us hoping for a return to lost paradise. As Hillman
so aptly puts it:

"Because hope has this core of illusion it favors
repression. By hoping for the 'status quo ante', we
repress the present state of weakness and suffering and
all it can bring. Postures of strength are responsible for
many major complaints today - ulcers, vascular and
coronary conditions, high blood-pressure, stress
syndrome, alcoholism, highway and sport accidents,

mental breakdown. The will to fall ill, like the suicide
impulse, leads patient and physician face to face with
morbidity, which stubbornly returns in spite of all hope
to the contrary." (Hillman, 1976, p.158).

While Hope is considered to be an inherent and
instinctual gift of optimism in humans, it has been
misunderstood in the context of the Pandora myth. This
misunderstanding is still with us today commemorated in
the custom of the bride's Hope Chest, filled with gifts and
adornments to grace a future home.

A delusional Hope is born of the Trickster archetype.
Anthropologist Angeles Arrien approaches the subject
this way: In Wokini, Olympic runner Billy Mills offers eight
lies of Iktumi (the trickster or liar figure) from the
Lakota tradition that can jeopardize happiness or set up
obstacles in a person's life. Iktumi's ancient invitation to
self-deception follows:

If only I were rich, then I would be happy.

If only I were famous, then I would be happy.

If only I could find the right person to marry, then I would

be happy.

If only I had more friends, then I would be happy.

If only I were more attractive, then I would be happy.

If only I weren't physically handicapped in any way, then I
would be happy.

If only someone close to me hadn't died, then I could be
happy.

If only the world were a better place, then I would be
happy.

None of these illusions is true in relationship to our
happiness and salvation. We obsessively strive at work
and at home for as many of the eight illusions as we
can... things that Iktumi tells us will make us happy. Once
these goals are attained we are often stunned to find
ourselves still without satisfaction, still without meaning,
or still without happiness. According to Iktomi's ways,
ceasing to strive for meaning and happiness allows us to
become liberated from our own fear and false
attachments.

If women can understand that the underlying power and

wholeness of the feminine is the mediatrix of life/death,
consciousness/un-consciousness then they no longer
will carry the reflection of the masculine projection of
the evil "bringer". In turn, the men may be forced inward
to own the feminine aspects within themselves.

The new emerging mythic psychology calls for us to
penetrate these inner domains and encounter the sacred
images normally hidden from view. Like shamans, and
like Orpheus and Persephane, we learn to journey to the
underworld reality and return to the waking world. We
learn to incorporate the mythic dimension within the
physical, and be the knower of both.

Pandora

Pandora (1861) by Pierre Loison (1816–1886)

In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: Πανδώρα,
derived from πᾶν, pān, i.e. "all" and δῶρον, dōron,
i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "the all-gifted" or "the
all-giving") was the first human woman created by the
gods, specifically by Hephaestus and Athena on the
instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god
helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus
ordered Hephaestus to mold her out of earth as part of
the punishment of humanity for Prometheus' theft of the
secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her
"seductive gifts". Her other name—inscribed against her
figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museumis
Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts" (up implying "from
below" within the earth).

According to the myth, Pandora opened a jar (pithos), in

modern accounts sometimes mistranslated as
"Pandora's box" (see below), releasing all the evils of
humanity—although the particular evils, aside from
plagues and diseases, are not specified in detail by
Hesiod—leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it
again

The Pandora myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the
question of why there is evil in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora

Pandora's Box - origins
What type of myth is this?

Zeus
Zeus wishes to punish mankind
Pandora ’s Box is an origin myth – the attempt to explain
the beginning of something.
People have always wanted to know why things happen in
the world the way they do. Before there was much
science, they did not have much understanding of how
the world works, but they still wanted to know, just as
much as we do. Human curiosity always asks why .. and
then human creativity finds ways of giving an answer.

There are many myths, across all cultures, which
attempt to explain the beginnings of human beings and
why there are evil things like disease, hate and war in
the world. In many stories, these evils are released
because humans disobey gods.

You may like to compare the story of Pandora with the
story of Adam and Eve. Do you know any other similar
stories from other cultures?

Are there other versions of the story?

Pandora Creation

The story of Pandora and her box comes from Ancient
Greece and is very old. Because of this, there are
several versions of the myth.
In Greek mythology, Pandora (meaning ‘all-giving’) was
the first woman on earth. Before humans there were the
immortals (the Gods and Titans). The brothers,
Prometheus and Epimetheus were Titans (Giant people)
who had fought on the Gods’ side in a war. Some say they
were cousins of Zeus, king of the gods; he asked
Prometheus to create man out of clay and water (in
many versions Hephaestus helps in this). Epimetheus had
to create the animals and give them their gifts of
courage, swiftness etc. He gave out all the gifts and had
none left for Man. So Prometheus decides to make man
stand upright, like the gods, and give them fire (which
Zeus did not want them to have – some say he had

removed it as a punishment). So Prometheus stole fire –
some say from Zeus’ lightning, others from the sun and
yet others from Hephaestus’ forge.

Most agree that Zeus asked Hephaestus to make Pandora
(the first woman) also out of earth and water, and he
intended her to be a punishment. Each god and goddess
gave Pandora a gift (talent), of beauty, charm, music etc
but also others, like curiosity and persuasion – gifts that
could be used for good or ill.

Then Pandora was given a container – in the original
Greek stories it was a jar and did not become a box until
the Sixteenth century AD. A scholar called Erasmus, who
lived in Rotterdam in Holland, translated a story of
Pandora from Hesiod’s work. Hesiod was a Greek poet
who lived about 700BC. Erasmus was translating the
Greek into Latin (which scholars did all their writing in, in
those days) and translated the Greek word ‘pithos’
meaning jar into the Latin word ‘pyxis’ meaning box. And
a box it has stayed to this day!

How did the myth arise?

Pandora's Jar
Originally a Jar?
It arose as a way of explaining why dreadful things
happened, such as people getting sick and dying.
As in many origin myths, man had lived in a world without
worry – until this jar / box was opened, which contained

ills for mankind. Zeus knew that Pandora’s curiosity
would mean that she could not stop herself from opening
it, especially when he had told her that she must not do
so!

Many other myths also explain the ills of the world by
saying they are caused by human disobedience of a god’s
instructions.

(Though some versions of this story say that the box was
a real gift and the box held good things for mankind,
which Pandora let escape from the box, and fly away
forever, only catching Hope.)

Even Hope itself has been argued about by scholars – not
everyone agreeing that it is a great good – that maybe
Zeus meant it as an evil also – otherwise it would not
have been in a jar of evil. Others believe that Zeus may
have relented a little, and put Hope in to help mankind
through the hard times that the other ‘gifts’ would bring.

What does it mean to us today?

Pandora's Box

Today, Pandora’s box means a source of troubles. When
we talk about opening Pandora’s box, we use it as a
metaphor to mean that we may not know what we are
getting ourselves into! Sometimes, that we do not always
know how something we have started may end, that we
do not know the consequences of our actions.

Pandora
Definition
by Mark Cartwright
published on 27 July 2015 Pandora (Lawrence
Alma-Tadema)

Pandora is a figure from Greek mythology who was not
only the first woman, but --as an instrument of the wrath
of Zeus-- was held responsible for releasing the ills of
humanity into the world. Pandora was also an unrelated
earth goddess in the early Greek pantheon.

PANDORA - AN INSTRUMENT OF PUNISHMENT

The name Pandora means "gifts" and "all". According to
(and perhaps even invented by) Hesiod in his Theogony
and Works & Days, Zeus had Hephaistos make Pandora,
the first woman, from earth and water. Zeus’ intention
was to use the beautiful and lovely Pandora as a means
to punish Prometheus who had stolen fire from the gods
and given it to mankind, who would in turn be punished.
Zeus promises:

Son of Iapetus [Prometheus], you who know counsels
beyond all others, you are pleased that you have stolen
fire and beguiled my mind – a great grief for you
yourself, and for men to come. To them I shall give in

exchange for fire an evil in which they may all take
pleasure in their spirit, embracing their own evil. (Works
& Days, 54-59)

PANDORA’S DIVINE GIFTS

Before her departure, Pandora was given a range of
divine gifts by each of the Olympian gods. Athena taught
her all the fine crafts and dressed her in silvery robes,
Aphrodite gave her grace and the means to create
burning desire, and Hermes gave her "a dog’s mind and a
thievish character" and in her breast "set lies and
guileful words" (Works & Days, 67-68, 77-78). If that
was not enough, she was adorned with fine jewellery by
the Graces, crowned with a magnificent golden headband
made by Hephaistos, and given garlands of spring
flowers by the Seasons. Finally, Pandora was given a
large storage jar to take down to earth which she was
told she must never open under any circumstances.

FULFILLING HER DESTINY, CURIOSITY GOT THE BETTER OF

PANDORA AND SHE LIFTED THE LID OF THE STORAGE JAR
WHICH RELEASED ALL THE EVILS OF THE WORLD.

PANDORA'S BOX: THE EVILS OF THE WORLD

Pandora, guided by Hermes, was sent to Epimetheus, the
brother of Prometheus. Foolishly forgetting his brother’s
advice never to accept a gift from the gods, the beautiful
Pandora was made welcome in Epimetheus’ home and the
two married, having a daughter, Pyrrha. One day, and
fulfilling her destiny, curiosity got the better of Pandora
and she lifted the lid of the storage jar which released all
the evils of the world. These terrible things included
disease, war, vice, toil, and the necessity to work for
sustenance.

Pandora, realising her mistake, quickly replaced the lid
but it was too late and only one thing remained inside,
caught in the edge of the jar’s lip --Hope-- so that
humanity might somehow bear its sudden and eternal
misfortune.

"Hope" is the traditional translation from the Greek but
actually may be better represented by "anticipation"
which includes an expectation of both good and bad
events. Through this punishment Zeus thus compensated
for the theft of fire and restored the eternal division
between gods and humans.

PANDORA IN ART
A relief frieze showing the birth of Pandora appeared on

the statue base of the gigantic Athena Parthenos by
Pheidias which stood inside the Parthenon. According to
Pliny the scene included 20 gods looking on. Pandora
appears too on a few Attic vases in scenes probably
inspired by the now lost satyr play Pandora by
Sophocles.

In one 5th century BCE red-figure krater, now in the
Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Pandora emerges from the
ground, symbolizing her origin from clay. In such scenes
either Epimetheus or satyrs hold mallets but the
significance of these has, unfortunately, been lost and
they once more illustrate the richness of Greek
mythology beyond the surviving literary sources.

http://www.ancient.eu/Pandora/