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In Greek mythology, 'Pandora' was the first woman. Zeus ordered her creation as a punishment for mankind, in retaliation for Prometheus' having stolen fire and then giving it to humans for their use. She is most famous for having brought with her a jar (or box) containing all the world's evils. She releases these evils, but closes the jar before Hope can escape.

Contents

The myth according to Hesiod: the ''Theogony''

The myth continued: ''Works and Days''

The difficulties of interpretation

A mythic inversion?

Pandora as depicted by the vase-painters

Anesidora

Problems and mistranslation

''Pithos'' into "box"

Modern interpretations

Trivia

See also

Notes

References

External links

The myth according to Hesiod: the ''Theogony''

The Pandora myth first appears in lines 560-612 of Hesiod's (ca. 8th-7th centuries BC) epic poem, the ''Theogony''. After humans received the gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decided to give men another gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to create the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendents would torment the race of men. After Hephaestus does so, Zeus' daughter Athena dressed her in a silvery gown, a broidered veil, garlands and an ornate crown of gold. This woman goes unnamed in the ''Theogony'', but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod would revisit. When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. But she was "sheer guile, not to be withstood by men." Hesiod elaborates (590-93):

From her is the race of women and female kind:

of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who

live amongst mortal men to their great trouble,

no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.

Hesiod goes on to lament that men who try to avoid the evil of women by avoiding marriage will fare no better (604-7):

He reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years,

and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives,

yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them.

Hesiod concedes that occasionally a man finds a good wife, but still (609) "evil contends with good."

The myth continued: ''Works and Days''

The more famous version of the Pandora myth comes from another of Hesiod's poems, the ''Works and Days''. In this version of the myth (lines 60-105), Hesiod expands upon her origin, and morever widens the scope of the misery she inflicts on mankind. As before, she is created by Hephaestus, but now more gods contribute to her completion (63-82): Athena taught her needlework and weaving (63-4); Aphrodite "shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs" (65-6); Hermes gave her "a shameful mind and deceitful nature" (67-8); Hermes also gave her the power of speech, putting in her "lies and crafty words" (77-80) ; Athena then clothed her (72); next she, Persuasion and the Charites adorned her with necklaces and other finery (72-4); the Horae adorned her with a garland crown (75). Finally, Hermes gives this woman a name: Pandora -- "All-gifted" -- "because all the Olympians gave her a gift" (81).^[1] In this retelling of her story, Pandora's feminine nature becomes the least of mankinds' worries. For she brings with her a jar containing "burdensome toil and sickness that brings death" (91-2), diseases (102) and "a myriad other pains" (100). Prometheus had (fearing further reprisals) warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus. But Epimetheus did not listen; he accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. One item, however, did not escape the jar (96-9):

Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house,

she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not

fly away. Before [she could], Pandora replaced the

lid of the jar. This was the will of aegis-bearing

Zeus the Cloudgatherer.

Hesiod closes with this moral (105): "Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of Zeus."

The difficulties of interpretation

Naturally, the question arises: Is Hope's imprisonment inside the jar a benefit for mankind, or a further bane? A number of mythology textbooks^[2] echo the sentiments of M.L. West: "[Hope's retention in the jar] is comforting, and we are to be thankful for this antidote to our present ills."^[3] Some scholars such as Mark Griffith, however, take the opposite view: "[Hope] seems to be a blessing witheld from men so that their life should be the more dreary and depressing."^[4] One's interpretation hangs on two related questions: First, how are we to translate ''Elpis'', the Greek word usually translated as "Hope"? Second, does the jar preserve ''Elpis'' for men, or keep ''Elpis'' away from men?
The first question might confuse the non-specialist. But as with most ancient Greek words, ''elpis'' can be translated a number of ways. A number of scholars prefer the neutral translation of "expectation." But expectation of what? Classical authors use the word ''elpis'' to mean "expectation of bad," as well as "expectation of good." Statistical analysis demonstrates that the latter sense appears five times more than the former in all of ancient Greek literature.^[5] Others hold the minority view that ''elpis'' should be rendered, "expectation of evil" (vel sim.).
How one answers the first question largely depends on the answer to the second question: should we interpret the jar to function as a prison, or a pantry?^[6] The jar certainly serves as a prison for the evils that Pandora released -- they only affect mankind once outside the jar. Some have argued that logic dictates, therefore, that the jar acts as a prison for ''Elpis'' as well, witholding it from men.^[7] If one takes ''elpis'' to mean expectant hope, then the myth's tone is pessimistic: All the evils in the world were scattered from Pandora's jar, while the one potentially mitigating force -- Hope -- remains locked securely inside.
This interpretation raises yet another question, complicating the debate: are we to take Hope in an absolute sense, or in a narrow sense where we understand Hope to mean hope only as it pertains to the evils released from the jar? If Hope is imprisoned in the jar, does this mean that human existence is utterly hopeless? This is the most pessimistic reading possible for the myth. A less pessimistic interpretation (still pessimistic, too be sure) understands the myth to say: countless evils fled Pandora's jar and plague human existence; the hope that we might be able to master these evils remains imprisoned inside the jar. Life is not hopeless, but each of us is hopelessly human.
An obvious objection to the ''hope is good/the jar is a prison'' interpretation counters that, if the jar is full of evils, then what is expectant hope doing among them? This objection leads one to render ''elpis'' as the expectation of evil, which would make the myth's tone somewhat optimistic: although humankind is troubled by all the evils in the world, at least they are spared the continuous expectation of evil, which would make life unbearable.
Seemingly the most popular interpretation is the optimistic reading of the myth expressed (e.g.) by M.L. West. ''Elpis'' takes the more natural meaning of expectant hope. The jar, however, serves a double function as both prison and pantry. West explains, "It would be absurd to represent either the presence of ills by their confinement in a jar or the presence of hope by its escape from one." Hope is thus preserved as a benefit for humans.
Taking the jar to serve as a prison at some times and as a pantry at others will also accomodate another pessimistic interpretation of the myth. In this reading, attention is paid to the phrase ''moune Elpis'' -- "only Hope," or "Hope alone." A minority opinion construes the phrase instead to mean "empty Hope" or "baseless Hope": not only are humans plagued by a multitude of evils, but they persist in the fruitless hope that things might get better.
Ultimately, the "point" of the Pandora myth might be to serve as a Rorschach test: "Tell me how you read the myth, and I'll tell you who you are."^[8]

A mythic inversion?

Classics scholars suggest that Hesiod reversed the meaning of the name of an earth goddess called ''Pandora'' ("all-giving" rather than passively "all-gifted") or ''Anesidora'' ("who sends up gifts"). T. A. Sinclair, commenting on ''Works and Days''^[9] suggests that Hesiod shows no awareness of the mythology of such a divine "giver". Jane Ellen Harrison sees in Hesiod's story "evidence of a shift from matriarchy to patriarchy in Greek culture. As the life-bringing goddess Pandora is eclipsed, the death-bringing human Pandora arises."^[10]Robert Graves, quoting Harrison, ^[11] asserts that "Pandora is not a genuine myth, but an anti-feminist fable, probably of his own invention;" A.H. Smith^[12] notes that in Hesiod's telling "Athene and the Seasons brought wreaths of grass and spring flowers, statements which indicate that Hesiod was conscious of Pandora's true significance. To her in the latest days of paganism Apollonius of Tyana addressed his prayers, and from her apparently obtained that a piece of ground should be fertile both of olives and treasure."

Pandora as depicted by the vase-painters

Jane Ellen Harrison^[13] turned to the repertory of vase-painters to shed light on aspects of myth that were left unaddressed or disguised in literature. The story of Pandora was repeated on Greek ceramics. On a fifth century amphora in the Ashmolean Museum (her fig.71) the half-figure of Pandora emerges from the ground, her arms upraised in the epiphany gesture, to greet Epimetheus.^[14] A winged ''ker'' with a fillet hovers overhead: "Pandora rises from the earth; she ''is'' the Earth, giver of all gifts," Harrison observes. On another vase showing the fashioning of Pandora she is inscribed with her alternative name: ''[A]nesidora'' ("who sends up gifts"). "Pandora is a form or title of the Earth-goddess in the Kore form, entirely humanized and vividly personified by mythology." Harrison notes (p. 281), and she quotes a scholium on a passage of Aristophanes mentioning a sacrificed white-fleeced ram to Pandora: "to Pandora, the earth, because she bestows all things necessary for life". Thus Harrison concludes "in the patriarchal mythology of Hesiod her great figure is strangely changed and minished. She is no longer Earth-Born, but the creature, the handiwork of Olympian Zeus." (Harrison, p 284)

Anesidora

'Anesidora', "who sends up gifts", is an alternative name for Pandora ("all-gifted") and an epithet assumed by the grain-goddess Demeter, who was venerated as ''Demeter Anesidora'' at Phlios in Attica.^[15] A marble altar inscribed to Demeter Anesidora, found in the sanctuary of Pergamon^[16] is conserved in Berlin.^[17]
That Anesidora is an archaic name of Pandora, "all-gifted" is demonstrated by a rendering of the creation of Pandora, who standing between Athena and Hephaestus, who reaches towards the diadem she is wearing with figures of animals he fashioned for her;^[18] she is unequivocally identified as "[A]NESIDORA]", painted on a white-ground ''kylix'' in the British Museum. (''illustration above right'').^[19] The setting of the scene recalls Hesiod's ''Theogony''.^[20]

Problems and mistranslation

Most scholars^[21] contend that Pandora's "box" is a mistranslation, and her "box" may have been a large jar or vase, forged from the earth, perhaps because of similarities in shape between a jar and a woman's uterus.^[22] Padraic Colum suggested that Pandora herself was the "jar,"^[23] and released the evils upon the world when put on the earth.
"Pandora" was named as a daughter-in-law of Noah in writings attributed to the Chaldean historian of the 3rd century BC, Berossus, by the 15th century monk Annio da Viterbo, but this is now widely regarded as a forgery.

''Pithos'' into "box"

The mistranslation of ''pithos'' as "box" is usually attributed to the sixteenth century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam when he translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora. Hesiod uses the word "pithos" which refers to a jar used to store grain. It is possible that Erasmus confused "pithos" with "pyxis" which means box. The scholar M.L. West has written that Erasmus may have mixed up the story of Pandora with the story found elsewhere of a box which was opened by Psyche^[24]
The original Greek text from 700 BC of Hesiod's ''Works and Days'', whence we get the earliest extant story of Pandora and the jar, does ''not'' specify exactly what was in the box Pandora opened.^[25]
M.L. West has written^[26] that the story of Pandora and her jar is from a pre-Hesiodic myth, and that this explains the confusion and problems with Hesiod's version and its inconclusiveness. He writes that in earlier myths, Pandora was married to Prometheus, and cites the ancient ''Catalogue of Women'' as preserving this older tradition, and that the jar may have at one point contained only good things for mankind. He also writes that it may have been that Epimetheus and Pandora and their roles were transposed in the pre-Hesiodic myths, a "mythic inversion". He remarks that there is a curious correlation between Pandora being made out of earth in Hesiod's story, to what is in Apollodorus that Prometheus created man from water and earth. (Apollodorus, ''Library and Epitome'', ed. Sir James George Frazer.[1] )^[27]

Modern interpretations

The story of Pandora's Box can be interpreted in more than one way, but is often thought to be a version of "curiosity killed the cat".
Various feminist scholars believe that in an earlier set of myths, Pandora was the Great Goddess, provider of the gifts that made life and culture possible, and that Hesiod's tale can be seen as part of a propaganda campaign to demote her from her previously revered status. For an alternate view of Pandora, see Charlene Spretnak's ''Lost Goddesses of Early Greece; A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Mythology'', 1977.
The presence of hope in a jar full of evils for mankind raises questions about whether Hope is a comfort for the evil mankind experiences, or whether the hope for something better must be interpreted as the damnation of mankind.
In the movie , Pandora's box is held to be the source of all life (and anti-life). By controlling it, the bad guys hope to have a super-weapon that would make them rich beyond dreams. Lara finds the box and returns it to its original resting place.
In the TV show ''Bewitched'', Elizabeth Montgomery played both Samantha Stephens and her cousin Serina. When Serina was on the show, she was credited as being played by "Pandora Spocks."
In the Playstation 2 game ''God of War'', Pandora's Box is a weapon so powerful that a mortal could use it to kill a god. The player, as Kratos, must conquer a trap-filled temple to retrieve the Box and use it to kill Ares.

Trivia

★ In one episode of Charmed,Pandora's box is a big part of the plotline.

★ In one episode of NUMB3RS,Pandora's box is a big part of the plotline.

★ In the video game a thief unwittingly opens Pandora's box and has to fight monsters in New York City.

See also

★ ''Eumorpha pandorus'' The Pandora sphinx moth

Notes

1. As we often find in Greek mythology, this is a folk etymology and thus inaccurate. In Greek, Pandora's name has an active rather than a passive meaning; hence, Pandora properly means "All-giver." The implications of this mistranslation are explored in "A mythic inversion?" below.
2. Such as those by Morford and Lendardon, by Harris and Platzner, and by Strauss.
3. As west puts it ad loc. in his 1966 text and commentary of the ''Theogony''.
4. Griffith 1983 ad ''PV'' 250.
5. Leinieks 1984, 1-4.
6. The phrase comes from Verdenius 1985, ad ''Works'' 96.
7. Scholars who take this view point out that once Pandora is shut inside, the jar is termed an "unbreakable" house (''arrektos'', in Greek). In other Greek authors such as Homer (and elsewhere in Hesiod), the adjective ''arrektos'' is used to designate something that sequesters or otherwise restrains its contents.
8. This observation was once made of Aeschylus' ''Prometheus Bound''. It comes from the introduction of a translation by Herington and Scully, IIRC. I'll find the reference.
9. Sinclair, editor, ''Hesiod: Works and Days'' (London: Macmillan) 1932:12.
10. William E. Phipps, "Eve and Pandora contrasted" ''Theology Today'' '45' on-line text
11. Harrison, ''Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'' (1903) 1922:283-85 quoted in Graves, ''The Greek Myths'' (1955) 1960, sect.39.8 p 148.
12. Smith, "The Making of Pandora" ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '11' (1890, pp. 278-283), p 283.
13. Harrison, ''Prolegomena'' 1922, pp 280-83.
14. Compare the rising female figure, identified as Aphrodite, on the "Ludovisi Throne".
15. Pausanias, I.31.2.
16. North of the northeast corner of the great altar on the Demeter terrace
17. Inv. 1910.32.19, illustrated in E. Ohlemutz, ''Die Kulte und Heiligtümer der Götter im Pergamon'', (1940), 218.
18. ''Theogony 581-82.
19. Ex-collection Bale, inv. no. D62.
20. Hesiod, ''Theogony'' 573-580.
21. Hesiod, Works and Days, translation of the word as jar, not box. The word in the Greek text is πιθου ("pithou", from the base "pithos") which describes "a very large jar, usually made of rough-grained terra cotta, used for storage".[3] [4] The classics scholar M.L. West writes about this issue on p.168, in his translation and commentary on Hesiod's Works and Days, confirming it was a jar, and not a box, and the many implications of that. For example, it was likely a jar as large physically, if not larger than a person. Cf. the original text of Hesiod, lines 90, 95. "[90] For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sicknesses which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands [95] and scattered, all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. [100] But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils, and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them".
22. Sujoy Deyasi, Uniphase: A Solution to Albert Einstein's the Unified Field Theory, 2003. "In the story of Pandora the box is representing a woman's womb (the uterus, the vessel in which a new life arrives in this world), and opening of it either by Pandora or by her husband god Epimetheus is referring to our conscious knowledge that we can have sex anytime. What came out of the box is human emotion." [7] This claim should be viewed with scholarly skepticism as it is far from the mainstream. It is only included here to fulfill a prior citation.
23. , "Orpheus" in ''Myths of the World'' (1930:71). "The jar, like Pandora herself, had been made and filled out of the ill-will of Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves and charms and washes, as the women thought, but with Cares and Troubles." This should be viewed with scholarly skepticism as it is an extrapolation to see Pandora being the vessel herself.
24. West, Hesiod's ''Works and Days'', p.168.
25. M.L. West, ''Works and Days'', p.168. "Hesiod omits to say where the jar came from, and what Pandora had in mind when she opened it, and what exactly it contained". West goes on to say this contributes to the "inconclusive Pandora legend".
26. West, ''Works and Days'', p.164.
27. M.L. West, ''Works and Days'', p.164.

References

★ Jane Ellen Harrison, ''Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'' (1903) 1922, pp 280-85.

★ Hesiod, ''Works and Days'' On-line text.

★ Moore, Clifford H. ''The Religious Thought of the Greeks'', 1916.

★ Nilsson, Martin P. ''History of Greek Religion'', 1949.

★ Pucci, Pietro. ''Hesiod and the Language of Poetry'', 1977.

★ Smith, William, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', 1870, sub "Pandora" On-line text

★ William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1870) vol I:177, sub "Anesidora" "Spender" is a misprint of "sender", often repeated.

External links

★ Story of Pandora's Jar at The Classics Pages

★ Pandora (web radio): Music Genome Project

★ Pandora's Technology Box