Pandora

In Greek mythology, Pandora (in ancient Greek: Πανδώρα) was the first woman, made by Hephaestus by order of the god Zeus after Prometheus, going against his will, gave him the gift of fire to humanity.

Pandora, according to the most common version of the myth, was responsible for opening the box (originally a jar) that was given to her by the gods and that contained all the evils, releasing into the world all the misfortunes that afflict humanity The last thing left in the box before Pandora closes it is hope.

Myth of the gods

According to the version of the poet Hesiod, the creation of the first woman is closely linked to the Mecone incident. When mortals and immortals separated, Prometheus devised a deception so that, henceforth, when humans made sacrifices for the gods, they would only reserve the bones and could use the meat and entrails for themselves. Zeus, irritated by the act, denied fire to the humans but Prometheus, stealing it, restored it to him.

To avenge Prometheus' theft, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to fashion an image of a beautiful maiden out of clay, resembling the immortal goddesses, and infuse it with life. But, while Aphrodite was ordered to grant her grace and sensuality and Athena was granted mastery of the arts related to the loom and to adorn her, along with the Graces and the Hours, with various attires, Hermes was commissioned to sow lies, seduction in her mind and a fickle character. All this in order to configure a "beautiful evil", a gift such that men would be happy to receive it, actually accepting countless misfortunes.

The poems present the introduction of evils by Pandora in a different way. In the Theogony, the poet presents her as the first among women, who in themselves bring evil: henceforth the man must choose to flee from marriage in exchange for a life without material deficiencies but without offspring to care for him and maintain his property after his death; or else marry and live constantly in poverty, running the risk of even finding a shameless woman, hopelessly wrong.

In Works and Days, Hesiod indicates that until then men had lived free from toil and disease but Pandora opened an amphora that contained all evils (the expression «Pandora's box» instead of jug or amphora is a Renaissance deformation) releasing all human misfortunes. The amphora was closed just before hope was released.

In this latest version the name "Pandora" and linked him to Epimetheus: Prometheus had warned him not to accept any gift from Zeus, otherwise great misfortune would befall mortals. After an initial rejection that angered Zeus, he chained Prometheus in the Caucasus Mountains. Epimetheus ended up marrying Pandora and realized very late the cunning of the father of the gods.

In the Catalogue of Women we meet Pandora again, this time as the daughter of Deucalion and mother of the eponymous hero Greco. It is not known if this Pandora is the same character that appears in the other two Hesiodic works with a different affiliation or if they are two different characters. Be that as it may, the inclusion of her in that work would relate the origin of the lineages of women who, lying with gods, would give birth to the heroes of all Greek mythology as a whole. A task that was apparently already announced in the Theogony (v. 591): "since the tribes of women descend from her". The Mythological Library (I, 7, 2), which is largely based on the Catalogue, mentions that Epimetheus and Pandora were parents of Pyrrha, wife of Deucalion, son of Prometheus. Deucalion and Pyrrha are considered by myth as ancestors of most of the peoples of Ancient Greece.

Other versions of the myth relate that the jug actually contained goods and not evils. The opening of the jar caused the goods to fly back to the mansions of the gods, removing themselves from the lives of men who henceforth only live afflicted by evils. The only thing they could keep from those goods is hope. However, the figure of the barrels that contain both good and evil is already reflected even in the Iliad, in which we are told that «two barrels are fixed on the threshold of Zeus: one contains the evils and the other the goods that they give us. To whom Zeus, who delights in lightning, gives a mixture, sometimes he meets with something bad and sometimes with something good. But to whom he only gives miseries, he makes him the object of all insults and a cruel goad drives him through the limpid earth and wanders without the appreciation of either gods or mortals ».

Interpretations

Etymology of the name "Pandora"

Etymologically, the word "Pandora" has been given a meaning with different nuances: Paul Mazon and Willem Jacob Verdenius have interpreted it as "everyone's gift"; however, for Robert Graves it means "the one who gives everything" and indicates that with that name (Pandora) Rhea was worshiped in Athens and other places. According to Graves, this would be the Greek precursor of the biblical Eve, since Pandora is the one who, like her, brings misfortune to humanity.

Sense of myth

For Jean-Pierre Vernant, the role of Pandora's myth in the Hesiodic text (especially referring to Works and Days) is that of the theological justification of the presence of dark forces in the world human. When Prometheus tries to obtain for men more than what they should receive, he drags humanity into misfortune: Zeus gives mortals an ambiguous gift, a mixture of good and evil, a plague that is difficult to tolerate but one that cannot be dispensed with.. It is deceit itself disguised as a lover. Pandora is responsible for communicating to the human world the powers represented by the Nyx lineage: from now on, all abundance coexists with Ponos, Geras follows youth, and justice contrasts with Eris. The appearance of the woman also implies the need for a constant effort in agricultural work, since she is constantly presented as a hungry womb, threatens the estate of her fiancé, whom she stalks with seductive charms (Apate), and once married install hunger in the home.

Box or pithos?

The mistranslation of pithos as "box" is attributed to the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, when translating the Hesiodic story of Pandora into Latin. Hesiod uses the noun πίθος (pithos), which defines a clay jar (or jug or amphora) to store wine, oil, grain or other provisions. Erasmus substituted πίθος for πυξίς (pyxis), which properly means "box". The context of this story appears in the "Adagios" (1508) of Erasmus, in a Latin illustration that reads "bad I accepto stultus sapit" ("experience makes a fool wise"); precisely in the version of his box it is Epimetheus himself who uncovers it, whose theonym seems to etymologically mean "he who thinks late." Since then the expression "Pandora's box" has become a proverbial expression and has survived in the cultural heritage to this day.