Pandora- Greek FigureMortal"All-Gifted"

The All-Gifted

Before Pandora, mortal men lived without toil or sorrow. The earth gave its fruits freely, and death came gently like falling asleep. Hesiod describes the golden race as living like gods, feasting in peace with hearts unburdened. When they died, they became daimones, benevolent spirits who wander the earth veiled in mist. They watch over judgments and dispense wealth. This was the age of Kronos, and it ended because Prometheus stole fire.

Prometheus climbed to Olympus and hid an ember in a hollow fennel stalk. He carried it back to earth, and men who had shivered in caves learned to forge bronze and bake bread. Zeus could not take fire back, but he could ensure its cost. He did not punish Prometheus alone. He punished the race that had benefited from the theft. He commanded Hephaestus to fashion from clay a thing of beauty and ruin: the first mortal woman. Every god on Olympus contributed to her making, and Hermes named her Pandora, "All-Gifted." Hesiod calls her a kalon kakon, a "beautiful evil." She was the price of fire.

The Creation

Hephaestus shaped her from earth and water, as a potter shapes a vessel. He gave her the form of the immortal goddesses. Athena dressed her in silvery garments and taught her the art of weaving. On her head Athena set a golden crown wrought with images of every creature of land and sea. Lions crouched beside deer, serpents coiled near fish, all so lifelike they seemed to breathe. Hesiod describes this crown at length in the Theogony. Aphrodite poured grace and cruel longing over her. The Charites and Peitho hung golden necklaces at her throat. The Horae wove garlands of spring flowers into her hair.

Then Hermes stepped forward. He placed within her a dog's shameless mind and a deceitful nature. He gave her speech: crafty words and lies from the first breath. He named her Pandora, because every god had given her a gift. She was the gift they intended for mankind.

The Jar and Its Opening

Zeus gave Pandora a great pithos, a clay storage jar tall enough for a person to crouch inside, sealed shut. Inside were all the evils that would plague humanity. Sealed among them was one thing different from the rest: Elpis, Hope.

Zeus sent Pandora to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. Prometheus had warned his brother never to accept any gift from Zeus, knowing the king of the gods would seek vengeance for the theft of fire. Prometheus was Forethought: he saw what was coming before it arrived. His brother saw only what had already happened. When Hermes brought Pandora to his door, she stood before him crowned in gold and dressed in silver. Epimetheus forgot every warning and took her as his bride.

Pandora opened the jar. Hesiod does not say why. She lifted the great lid and scattered its contents across the earth. Sickness and toil flew out, and ten thousand other sorrows followed. Before the jar was opened, the tribes of men had lived free of heavy toil and grievous disease. Now the earth was full of evils and the sea was full of evils. The diseases crept among mortals without sound, for Zeus had taken their voices. They wandered by day and came upon sleepers by night.

Pandora slammed the lid back down, but too late. Only Elpis remained inside, caught beneath the rim before it could escape. Whether Hope's imprisonment was mercy or Zeus's final cruelty, Hesiod does not say.

Pausanias records a different Pandora. At Athens she was worshipped under the name Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts." He saw her image carved on the base of Athena's great statue on the Acropolis, rising from the earth as the gods gathered around her.

Pyrrha and the Flood

Pandora and Epimetheus had a daughter named Pyrrha, who married Deucalion, son of Prometheus. When Zeus sent the great flood to destroy the Bronze Age of humanity, rain fell for nine days and nine nights. The sea swallowed the shoreline and the waters rose over the roofs of temples. In Ovid, fish swam among the elm branches and dolphins struck against the treetops. Prometheus had warned Deucalion and Pyrrha. They built a wooden chest and stocked it with provisions. They floated for nine days above the drowned world until the waters receded and their chest came to rest on Mount Parnassus.

Alone in an empty world, they prayed at the ruined shrine of Themis. The oracle told them to veil their heads, loosen their garments, and throw the bones of their great mother behind them as they walked. Pyrrha was horrified. She would not dishonor her mother's remains. Deucalion puzzled over the words. Then he understood: their great mother was Earth, and her bones were stones. They walked forward, casting stones over their shoulders. In Ovid's telling, the stones softened as they rolled. Hard rock turned to flesh, veins ran where once there were cracks, and limbs took shape. Deucalion's stones became men. Pyrrha's became women. Through Pandora's daughter, humanity began again.