Pandora
When Zeus was so angry at
Prometheus for giving people fire, he was
also mad at the people who had tricked him into taking the wrong
bag of meat. Zeus got back at the people by making a beautiful woman,
whom he named Pandora (which means all-gifts).
Zeus sent Pandora down to earth and gave her
as a present to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus.
Zeus told Epimetheus that he should marry Pandora. Also, Zeus sent Pandora
with a little box, with a big lock on it (Actually in ancient Greek
versions of this story it is a sealed
pottery vase). He said
not to ever open the box, and he gave the key to Epimetheus.
But Pandora was very curious about what was in the box. She begged Epimetheus
to let her open it, but he always said no. Finally one day he fell asleep,
and she stole the key (or broke the seal) and opened the box (or vase).
Oh! Out of the box flew every kind of trouble that people had never
known about before: sicknesses,
and worries, and crimes, and
hate and envy and all sorts
of bad things. The bad things all began to fly away like little bugs,
all over the place. Pandora was very sorry now that she had opened the
box! She tried to catch the bad things and put them back in the box
but it was too late. They all flew away.
But the very last thing to fly out of the box, as Pandora sat there
crying, was not as ugly as the others. In fact it was beautiful. It
was Hope, which Zeus sent to keep people going
when all the nasty things got them down.
To find out more about Pandora, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Pandora, by Robert Burleigh (2002). For kids, with lovely illustrations.
Keep a Lid on It, Pandora! (Myth-O-Mania), by Kate McMullan (2003). A funnier version, full of puns and rhymes.
D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, by Edgar and Ingri D'Aulaire.
Pandora's Box: A Three-Dimensional Celebration of the Mythology of Ancient Greece, by Sara Maitland and Christos Kondeatis (1995). Not really about Pandora specifically, but a complex of stories, games, and puzzles about Greek mythology. People love it!
Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, with a translation and introduction by M. L. West (reprinted 1999). This is the original Greek text that tells the story of Pandora.
Prometheus
Zeus
Main Greek religion page (other myths)
Main Ancient Greece page
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