|
Read my lips and come to grips with the reality! This article is a stub and is in need of expansion. You can help The Evil Wiki by expanding it. |
Pandora's Box is a concept in Greek mythology that is comparable to the "Original Sin" of Adam and Eve in Judeo-Christian theology - though it is based on the morals and religious values of ancient Greece rather than the Abrahamic religions. Pandora's Box was an artifact that was once opened by Pandora unleashed all the suffering currently in the world - Pandora closed the pithos in an effort to stop the corruption, but in the process only served to contain "hope", which lay at the bottom of the box. The "box" is said that it is a treasure chest of some sort to some while it was actually a large jar to others. Two of these descriptions of the legend are somewhat contradicting.
The myth of Pandora’s box has been fascinating people since ever, catching the imagination of countless artists, who created frescos, mosaics and sculptures depicting Pandora and the mythological elements. The myth itself though appears in many different versions; the most distinctive difference is that in some myths Hope does come out. The main purpose of the myth of Pandora though is to address the question of why evil exists in the world.
The birth of Pandora was represented on the pedestal of the statue of Athena situated at the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Greece's capital Athens.
In modern times, an idiom about or from the myth of Pandora's Box has grown from the story meaning "Any source of great and unexpected troubles", or alternatively "A present which seems valuable but which in reality is a curse".
Legend
The first female human Pandora, who was created by the Greek smith god Hephaestus at behest of Zeus and their fellow ruling deities of Olympus under him as a punishment to the ancient mankind for the Titan Prometheus' theft of the Olympian gods' sacred fire and his subsequent giving of fire onto them, was given a certain but unsual treasure to behold, a box or a jar, called “pithos” in Grecian dialect. The Olympian gods told her that the box contained such special gifts from them but she was not allowed to open the box ever. Then the messenger god Hermes took her to a Titan on Earth named Epimetheus, twin brother of Prometheus, to wed her with him together as husband and wife. Prometheus had advised Epimetheus never to accept anything from the Gods, but he saw Pandora and was astonished by her beauty, thus he accepted her right away from that union, as implied, would one day began the birth of their daughter Pyrrha.
Pandora was trying to tame her curiosity, but in the end, she could not help herself nor held on much longer; she then opened the forbidden item and what was revealed was not the unique "gifts" the Greek gods speak of, but all the illnesses and hardships that gods had hidden away in the box thar started coming out. Pandora was frightened, because she saw all the evil spirits personifying these terrible traits and sicknesses coming out, and she tried to close the box as fast as possible, closing one truly special gift, a power called Hope, inside the pithos itself.
According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Hope indeed stayed inside because that was Zeus’ will; he wanted to let people suffer in order to understand that they should not disobey their gods. Pandora was the right person to do it, because she was curious enough, but never truly evil.
Gallery
