General Notes

PANDORA over the centuries has become a kind of equivalent of Eve, the first created woman. Much blame was assigned to both because of a foolish mistake (provided we remove the element of destiny). Pandora, whose name literally meant All Gifts, came into being when Zeus had her created by the master artisan Hephaestus to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven. Right there we have an anomaly, since the theft of fire presupposed an already existing population of the earth. But perhaps only males existed at that point, and Zeus had other ideas for propagation. It is interesting that he saw the creation of a woman as a punishment. Whatever the reason, Pandora was created as the first woman, and all the gods came forward to endow her with gifts. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Hermes gave her cunning, and other gods and goddesses gave her various powers that Zeus had calculated to bring about the ruin of man. Finally he had Hermes deliver her to Epimetheus, the not-so-bright brother of Prometheus. Epimetheus was utterly charmed by this marvelous creation, although he had been warned by Prometheus never to accept a gift from Zeus. He forgot his promise to his brother to think before acting, because Aphrodite's gift had certainly included the ability of Pandora to give her husband ultimate sexual pleasure. Life was happy for Pandora and especially so for Epimetheus. But already destiny was at work. In the house was a covered earthen vessel (or box or chest) that either had been placed in the safekeeping of Epimetheus or given to Pandora along with other gifts. In either case it was forbidden to open it. But its unknown contents plagued Pandora (she had been given curiosity along with everything else). One day while Epimetheus was away, she could stand the temptation no longer and peeked into the vessel. She found out soon enough why she should not have opened the pot, for out swarmed all the calamities of mankind--from tidal waves to premature balding. It was too late to stop them as they spread out through the window and across the world. Pandora dropped the lid back in time to prevent the excape of the final occupant of the vessel. This was Elpis, and no matter how bad things became for people then and in the future, there was always hope. Pandora became the mother of Pyrrha by Epimetheus. Pyrrha married Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and these two people repopulated the earth when Zeus, finally disgusted with man, sent a flood to wipe out the human race. There is no record of Pandora's final history. It is not really certain whether or not she was considered immortal. In later writings she became associated with infernal divinities such as Hecate, Persephone, and the Erinyes.
In one or two versions of the allegory, Pandora brought the fatal vessel Epimetheus and, using her newly fashioned wiles, prevaied upon him to open it. It is interesting to observe the parallel of this story to that of Eve in the garden of Eden urging Adam to taste the forbidden apple. Some said the vessel contained only benefits for mankind, but these were allowed to escape. In any case, the result was intended to be the same. The birth of Pandora was represented on the pedestal of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon. [Hesiod, Theogony 571, Works and Days 30,50,96; Hyginus, Fables 142; Apollodorus 1.7.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.350; Orphica, Argonautica 974.]