Did you know that although it is more commonly known as Pandora's Box,
in the ancient world, it would have been a jar or a pithos?
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Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia! My name is Kelly,
and today's video is all about how an ancient Greek woman released misfortune into the world,
ending a golden age of peace and afflicting humanity with every kind of evil. Today we
are talking about Pandora. Don't forget, the easiest way to support us is by giving this
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Pandora, a well-known figure from Greek mythology, is known from the ancient literature as the first
mortal woman who was crafted out of clay by the gods. The name Pandora can mean "All-Giving" or
"The Giver of All" but also "All Gifted" and both of these meanings make sense when you think about
her story as she was given all manner of gifts by the gods and was also the giver of unwanted
gifts to humanity. According to Hesiod in his "Theogony" and "Works and Days",
Pandora was crafted by the god of metallurgy and smiths, Hephaestus, from earth and water
as directed by Zeus, the king of the gods as an affliction on man. The birth of Pandora was
displayed on a relief at the base of the enormous Athena Parthenos statue by the architect Pheidias
that used to stand tall inside the Athenian Parthenon. According to the Roman author Pliny,
the scene showed 20 gods looking on. It is also believed that her appearance on some Attic vaces
was inspired by the play "Pandora" by Sophocles that has since been lost. She seems to have been
a popular subject in the art and literature of ancient Greece, based on the number of images of
her on ceramics and references to her in written works. In telling of Pandora, let's start with
Prometheus, the Titan god of forethought and his brother Epimetheus, the Titan god of afterthought.
Prometheus was given the task to create humans out of clay and so he did,
and he wanted his creations to live good lives. He saw how humans had to sacrifice the best part
of their meat to the gods and so he devised a plan to trick Zeus, the king of the gods;
he wrapped the good fat meat in an ox's stomach and ox's bones which he then covered in fat and
had Zeus choose which portion he would like, and so after choosing the deceptive bones,
humans were able to keep the good meat for themselves and burn the bones for the gods.
In punishment for this trick, Zeus took away mortals ability to cook by taking away their fire.
Prometheus wasn't going to allow that, so he stole fire back and smuggled it to earth in a fennel
stalk and although mankind got the fire back, both they and Prometheus ended up being punished.
In punishment for rebelling against Zeus, Prometheus was bound to a cliff and an eagle
was set to eat out his liver but since he was a Titan and immortal, every night his
liver would grow back just to be eaten by the eagle again the next day. As for the mortals,
this is where Pandora plays her infamous role. In Hesiod's "Works and Days", he describes a Golden
Age during which men lived in harmony with the gods until Zeus became angered by their
rebellion which was encouraged by Prometheus, so he decided to create woman as a punishment.
Zeus describes Pandora as an affliction which mortals will all delight in as they embrace
their own misfortune, and so Hephaestus created the first mortal woman out of water and earth
and gave her a human voice, strength and a form modelled on the immortal goddesses,
then all of the gods gave her gifts and attributes with Athena teaching her crafts,
Aphrodite giving her grace and the ability to create burning desire and Hermes gave her cunning
and boldness. The goddesses clothed her in finery, adorned her with jewellery and named her Pandora.
Pandora was sent as a gift to Epimetheus who had previously been warned by his brother not
to accept any gifts from Zeus, but he accepted Pandora before he remembered his brother's warning
since he is after all the Titan of afterthought. Pandora came to Earth not alone but with a jar
which she was told never to open. One day when she could no longer control her curiosity, she
opened the jar and released all mortal ills upon the Earth, including sickness, war, vice, toil,
pain and the necessity to work for sustenance but she was able to stopper her jar before hope
was released into the world as it was under the lip of the jar, and so hope alone remained. The
story would have been referred to as 'Pandora's Jar' in ancient Greece but when it was translated
into Latin in the 16th century, a scribal error changed jar to box and so today we have the phrase
'Don't Open a Pandora's Box' meaning don't create problems that did not exist before.
What do you think hope being left in the jar means? Let us know what you think in
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