Who was Pandora ?

Pandora is best known today as the mythological keeper of a sealed pithos, which contained all the problems of the world

Pandora was more than just the curious woman who opened this container She was the Greek equivalent of Eve in the story of Genesis, the first woman What Pandora did was to start the real world

According to Greek mythology, the first mortal man was created by the Titan Prometheus Man was made out of mud and clay earth, and Athena breathed life into man However, Prometheus wanted more for man, and stole fire from the gods to give energy to humanity to build civilizations Zeus, was angry with Prometheus and sought to punish him He commanded Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship, to make the first female mortal resembling the goddesses of Olympus Zeus called upon the gods and goddess to share their gifts in the creation of this new woman They endowed upon her the gifts of language, fertility, strength, beauty and curiosity and more This formidable woman was named Pandora, meaning ‘all gifts’ However, the most important gift bestowed upon her was the power to change her world

Zeus sent Hermes to gift Pandora to Epimetheus (Prometheus’ brother) However, despite Prometheus’ warning to beware of gifts from the gods, Epimetheus could not resist Pandora Interestingly some etymologists claim Prometheus means ‘pro-thought’ and Epimetheus means ‘after-thought’.

Zeus then asked Hephaestus to make a jar, a pithos Zeus then gave this sealed jar as a gift to Pandora, for her marriage to Epimetheus The sting in the tail was that she was made to promise Zeus that she would never attempt to open the seal

Over time, Pandora became obsessed by the pithos and its contents Eventually, her curiosity took over Pandora broke the seal and unbeknownst to her, had released and set free all that was bad into the world: misery, evil, violence, disease and suffering. She was horrified as she watched this all escape, so she quickly managed to shut the seal again Pandora did not know that following the bad things, was the release of everything that was good in the world Zeus had been watching her disguised as a wolf Unknowingly she had trapped Hope inside the jar, which was the necessary blessing and consolation humans needed in order to cope with, and counter the bad things that Pandora let loose on the world

Most of what we know about Greek mythology comes from the poet Hesiod In his Theogyny, Pandora’s action ended the Golden Age of Gods and Man - a world of bliss and carefree existence, and began the Silver Age, in which history begins What followed included an age of heroes

Since the 16th century this Pithos was more commonly referred to as a Box

In the end, Zeus had his revenge on Prometheus. But another view is that Pandora’s actions gave humans a chance to live deeper meaningful lives: lives shaped by the struggles to overcome adversity in a troubled world. Her gifts, as the first mortal woman, was to produce strong children In doing so, she built humankind and prepared it to face life’s difficulties and challenges.