Once upon a time Zeus got tricked by Prometheus and decided to take a revenge not only on Prometheus, but to all the species he was a part of. That was humanity.
Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create a woman from clay. Hephaestus worked hard and made a masterpiece, Aphrodite was there to advice him. Athena, goddess of wisdom, breathed life into her. Zeus named the woman Pandora, meaning “she who possesses all the gifts” and sent her as a gift to Epimetheus.
Epimetheus had been warned by Prometheus that he should never accept Zeus’ tricky gifts. But Epimetheus fell in love with Pandora and married her. Zeus, pleased that his trick was working, gave to Pandora, as a wedding gift, a beautiful box. There was one condition however; that was that she never opened the box.
Pandora often wondered what was in the box. Day by day her curiosity was growing bigger. One day it got very important to find out what was hidden there. She could stand it no longer. She took the key, fitted it into the lock and turned it. She lifted the lid but before she realised it the room was filled with terrible things: disease, despair, death, violence, cruelty, greed and war. She closed the box, locking in only the hope.
While someone can extract just the “don’t be curious” meaning, one can see clear similarities in the way God gave fatalities to humanity between the Adam and Eva story and the Pandora’s box story. Something forbidden, two women, curiosity and finally the punishment. Does it mean that the Jews and the Greeks had common views of the creation of the world? Perhaps.. It may also be that one of the two peoples just got affected by the other, since trade was running between the two and cultural contact was adequate to have such influences.
No matter what had happened, referring to “the opening of Pandora’s box” always has the meaning that the worst are about to come. The box itself can be something beautiful outside, evil inside.
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