Pandora's Box - Exploring the Dark Side of the Ancient Greek MythA story about how a young woman's curiosity caused the world to experience sorrow, death, and sadness, but also hope.
In ancient Greece, there were two brothers named Epimetheus and Prometheus. They displeased the gods, especially Zeus, who is the most powerful of all the gods. Zeus had already disciplined people by taking away their capacity to generate fire as a punishment, thus this wasn't the first time. As a result, they were unable to cook their meat or stay warm.
Yet Prometheus was a cunning man, and he was aware that Hephaestos, the blacksmith, resided on the Isle of Lemnos. To keep his forge hot, he had a fire going. Prometheus went to Lemnos and took the blacksmith's fire. Zeus was enraged and decided that humanity ought to be punished for their disrespect once and for all.
Zeus devised a clever scheme to punish the two brothers. He made a woman out of clay with Hephaestos' assistance. The clay was subsequently given life by the goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hermes, who also taught her how to be seductive and deceptive. Zeus gave her the name Pandora and gave her to Epimetheus as a gift.
Epimetheus was deeply enamoured with the woman and felt that she was so lovely that she could never do any harm, so he decided to marry her despite his brother Prometheus's warning not to take any gifts from the gods.
Zeus handed Pandora a lovely box as a wedding present as a sign that his trap was successful. She was not allowed to open the box, though, and that was a very, very crucial condition. While she had vowed never to open the box, Pandora was quite curious as to what was within.
What might be in the box was all she could think about. If she couldn't see what was inside, she didn't see why someone would send her a package. She thought it made no sense at all and had no choice but to open the box and discover what was inside. Zeus had intended for this to happen.
Pandora eventually had enough of it. When she realised Epimetheus had disappeared, she snuck over to the box, grabbed the enormous key from the top shelf, gently inserted it into the lock, and turned it. She hurriedly closed the box without opening the lid and placed the key back where she had found it, but at the last second, she felt a sense of guilt and thought how furious her husband would be. She repeated these three more times before realising she had to see inside otherwise she would go insane.
After inserting the key into the lock, she turned it. She inhaled deeply, shut her eyes, and then gradually raised the box's cover. She opened her eyes and peered into the box, expecting to see expensive silks, dresses, gold jewellery, piles of gold coins, or perhaps magnificent gold bracelets and necklaces.
There was no sign of wealth or treasure, though. There was not a single lovely garment, not any sparkling jewellery! She initially had an excited expression, but it swiftly changed to one of sadness, then dread. Zeus filled the box with every dreadful horror he could think of. The box opened, and disease and destitution spilt forth. Death, suffering, and sadness all emerged in the form of angry wasps.
Pandora repeatedly got stung by the wasps before slamming the lid shut. To find out why she was sobbing in despair, Epimetheus rushed inside the room. Even now, Pandora could still hear a voice pleading with the box to let her out. They opened the lid once more because Epimetheus agreed that nothing inside the box could possibly be worse than the horrors that had already been set forth.
Hope was the only thing still inside the box. It emerged from the box like a delicate dragonfly, mending the wounds caused by the malicious monsters. Although Pandora had brought anguish and pain upon the world, she had also let Hope go along with them.
