They each add that the couple had a daughter, Pyrrha, who married Deucalion and survived the deluge with him. For example, Apollodorus and Hyginus each make explicit what might be latent in the Hesiodic text: Epimetheus and Pandora were married. Later mythographers would fill in minor details or add postscripts to Hesiod's account. Hesiod closes with this moral (105): "Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of Zeus."
She remained under the lip of the jar, and did notįly away. Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house, One item, however, did not escape the jar (96-9), hope.:
Anesidora pandora full#
As a result, Hesiod tells us, "the earth and sea are full of evils" (101). Prometheus had (fearing further reprisals) warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus however Epimetheus did not listen he accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. For she brings with her a jar containing "burdensome toil and sickness that brings death to men" (91-2), diseases (102) and "a myriad other pains" (100). In this retelling of her story, Pandora's deceitful feminine nature becomes the least of mankind's worries. Finally, Hermes gives this woman a name: Pandora-"All-gifted"-"because all the Olympians gave her a gift" (81). 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). In this version of the myth (lines 60-105), Hesiod expands upon Pandora's origin, and widens the scope of the misery she inflicts on mankind. The more famous version of the Pandora myth comes from another of Hesiod's poems, the Works and Days. Hesiod concedes that occasionally a man finds a good wife, but still "evil contends with good" (609). Yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. He reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years,Īnd though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, Hesiod goes on to lament that men who try to avoid the evil of women by avoiding marriage will fare no better (604-7): No helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. Live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, Of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who Yet she was "sheer guile, not to be withstood by men." Hesiod elaborates (590-93):įrom her is the race of women and female kind: When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony, but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod would revisit. After Hephaestus does so, Zeus' daughter Athena dressed her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, garlands and an ornate crown of gold.
He commands Hephaestus to create the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the race of men.
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. The Pandora myth first appears in lines 560-612 of Hesiod's epic poem, the Theogony (ca. In popular speech today, the saying "Opening a Pandora's Box" suggests bringing up an issue that will likely make matters worse and compound the problem rather than alleviate it.
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