Hindsight is often 20/20.
How often in life have we looked back and thought, “If only I knew then what I know
now.” When we think in the retrospective, it is quite common to experience feelings of guilt,
regret and maybe even embarrassment over a certain situation. Indeed, afterthought can
invoke some more pleasant nostalgic feeling, but it can also stir something more painful and have
us asking the question ‘why did I do what I did?’ or ‘why didn’t I do that when I had the chance?’
So of course, the ancient Greeks would have to make a deity out of such a notion
and attribute him with all the goofy and foolish traits that we disdain in ourselves.
Furthermore, in this sense, the Titan Epimetheus could also be widely criticised for his lack of
wisdom given that according to the ancients, he’s the reason that none of us can fly.
But more on that later.
Many of you by now will know of the Titanomachy - the great war that took place between the Titans,
who were led by the mad Cronus and the Olympians, led by his son Zeus.
After Cronus had begun swallowing his children in an effort to protect his rule,
Zeus had been smuggled away and was promised to return to not only free his siblings from his
father’s stomach, but also to usurp him from his rule. When the time came, the Titans did not back
down from the challenge of the younger gods but were ultimately overcome by the might of Zeus.
Despite having the numbers on their side and boasting monstrous Titans
such as the brothers Atlas and Menotius, not every Titan had sided with Cronus in his attempt to
quell his son’s rebellion. The second generation Titans Prometheus, the wise and Epimetheus,
the not so wise, (those who were also the brothers of Atlas and Menotius) would remain neutral
and given how Zeus was seen to treat his Titan captives, it’s just as well they did.
We know little of how Menotius was dealt with, other than that he was destroyed by Zeus,
presumably with a thunderbolt. Whilst Atlas, as we famously know, was punished to hold
the heavens in place for all eternity. Having remained neutral, Prometheus and Epimetheus were
able to avoid such a fate, and despite their Titan heritage, were shown clemency by Zeus
for their impartiality. Indeed, we would later see that Prometheus would defy Zeus and ultimately go
against him with his affections for man, though this too would earn the Titan the excruciating
punishment of having his liver continuously picked apart by a bird. Epimetheus meanwhile
appears to be the only brother who did not incur the wrath of Zeus, though this may be due to his
foolhardiness and his considerable lack of threat when compared to his brothers. Despite this,
his role in humanity's creation cannot be overlooked, for it is crucial, if not detrimental.
From the mythology, we understand that after Zeus was victorious
and finally reigned supreme over the earth, he wished to populate the earth with animals and men.
Mankind would be particularly important given that it was deemed that they would worship the gods
and provide sacrifices to them in the form of food and gifts. The task of creating man was issued
to Prometheus and Epimetheus, and it is from clay that the brothers would go about sculpting
every creature that would come to exist in this new world - a world cleared of monsters,
giants and titans and a world where mankind could live in some comfort and security.
It is understood that Epimetheus was in charge of distributing skills and
characteristics to their creations, whilst Prometheus was something of a supervisor,
checking over his brother's work before the final product was released into the wild.
So diligent and focussed in his role, Epimetheus made sure that no creature
was unequipped in this new world and whilst some certainly had advantages over others,
no creature went out into the world without some sense or ability
that enabled its survival. The birds were given wings for which to soar the skies,
the fish were given fins to cut through the waters, land creatures like the elephant and the
rhinoceros were given armour like hides whilst the lions and the tigers were given agility and speed.
The bears were given furs to warm them against the elements, the snakes were given venom for which to
defend against predators and the wolves were given an acute sense of smell to seek out other prey.
But so generous was Epimetheus with these gifts that by the time it came for man to
receive his gifts, he found that he had none left to give. American author Edith Hamilton
refers to Epmitheus as ‘scatterbrained’ and that he invariably followed his first fist impulse
and then changed his mind. Such was the case here, for he had been so indulgent in dishing
out these fantastic traits to the animals, that he had completely overlooked mankind.
It is here where he gets his reputation as ‘afterthought’ or ‘afterthought personified’,
for it was only after he’d already made his grave mistake did he realise what he’d done.
We are told by Edith Hamilton in her book Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes that, “Before making men
he gave all the best gifts to the animals, strength and swiftness and courage and shrewd
cunning, fur and feathers and wings and shells and the like until - no good was left for man,
no protective covering and no quality to make them a match for the beasts.”
Upon hearing of Epimetheus’ failure with mankind, Zeus was not willing to
provide the new creation with any more skills. Perhaps this was Zeus guarding against mankind,
for after having recognised the similarities in mankind and the gods, was aware that
they too might have been ambitious enough to overthrow him as he had recently done to Cronus.
With that, he was more than happy for mankind to enter the world as they were,
unprotected and unequipped to deal with its dangers.
But it was Prometheus who took pity upon mankind and after seeing his
creation suffer in the wilderness, decided to do something about it. In one version of the myth,
we are told by Edith Hamilton that “Prometheus, then, took over the task of creation and thought
out a way to make mankind superior. He fashioned them in a nobler shape than the animals, upright
like the gods; and then he went to heaven, to the sun, where he lit a torch and brought down fire,
a protection to men far better than anything else, whether fur or feathers or strength or swiftness.”
Whilst there are later accounts of Prometheus going above and beyond for humanity, including
tricking Zeus into allowing the humans to keep the lion’s share of a sacrifice and even stealing both
fire from Hephatus’ workshop and wisdom from Athena, Epimetheus appears to relinquish his
responsibilities of humanity and is ultimately overlooked himself as a creator of man. This is
likely due to the fact that Prometheus appeared to really cherish humanity, as opposed to just
enjoying the novelty of creating them. When Epimetheus overlooked humanity’s needs and in
some sense washed his hands of the endeavour, Prometheus continued to fight for humanity
and sacrificed his own wellbeing to ensure their survival. Furthermore, it might be said that the
ancients were more keen to shun Epimetheus as their creator, given that not only had he
botched humanity with his carelessness, but had he been more cautious, he might’ve given mankind the
ability of flight, or strength or agility that would rival the animals that we know of today.
But Epimetheus’ foolishness did not end with our botched creation. In fact, you might say that he
only made things even harder for humanity in the following years after Prometheus’ sacrifices.
You see, after Prometheus had defied Zeus by providing humanity with fire, Zeus had to make
an example of him. And so, much like his brothers Atlas and Menotius, Prometheus was subject to the
wrath of Zeus and tied to a mountain where his liver was eternally picked apart by a bird.
Before this punishment though, Prometheus, being forward thinking, predicted that Zeus’ anger
at being outwitted by him would not be sated any time soon. He gauged that Zeus would seek
vengeance upon humanity - arguably as the product of Prometheus’ wily ways - and that he would
target humanity in a most insidious fashion. With this, he told Epimetheus not to accept any gift
from the gods - deeming them all to be puppets of Zeus and condemning them all as untrustworthy.
Epimetheus heeded his brother’s words, but much as his name and character suggest,
this heeding would not last and you might say that anything his wiser brother had told him went
through one ear and out the other. Especially when he laid eyes on the gift that Zeus would send him.
Her name was Pandora and she was specially crafted by Hephaestus before having life
breathed into her by either Zeus himself, or by Aprhodite - the goddess of love and beauty.
Whilst she was more curious than she was deadly, and innocent as opposed to wicked (at least in
some versions), she was described as a great evil for man as we’ll soon see. Her charms and beauty
were not just striking for man however, who had never perceived such a creature as her, but
they were also poised to seduce Epimetheus and to arrest his interests like nothing he’d ever known.
For such a short-sighted Titan, you can imagine that this wasn’t even that hard.
Zeus could’ve probably created an average looking woman with meagre charms and Epimetheus would have
probably still been entirely distracted by her. But Pandora’s remarkable beauty and character
made her impossible for Epimetheus to deny and before long, he was deeply in love with her.
Now, the gods had not sent Pandora to Epimetheus empty handed. Indeed, they equipped her with a jar
and in this jar they had each placed something harmful before forbidding her from opening it.
Epimetheus, who had by now long forgotten his brother’s warning of accepting gifts
from the gods, would marry Pandora and with that, so began Zeus’ master plan.
It would appear that Prometheus was not the only character with such immense foresight,
for Zeus had anticipated Pandora would soon be burning with curiosity - after all, he did have
a hand in her creation. She turned to the jar that the gods had forbidden her from opening
and with each day that passed, she grew more and more eager to learn of its contents.
In some variations, the jar was buried deep under her marriage bed with Epimetheus, likely
so as to resist the temptation of opening it. In others, she had buried it out in the garden.
In any case, despite a happy marriage with Epimetheus, the pull of the jar was
constant and the urge to peek inside would all but consume her as the days rolled on.
So one night, Pandora snuck out to the burial place of the jar and there,
she retrieved the elusive item and against her better judgement, finally gave into her curiosity.
She opened the jar.
Mystical shapes burst from the jar - fantastic shapes that awed her… at least, at first.
These shapes turned out to be deceit, old age, misery, blame, violence, ruin,
discord, hardship, starvation, pain, war and slaughter - all the things that would spell the
end of the golden age of the world and plunge it into a bleaker and foreboding one. And such was
Zeus’ revenge, for now the mankind that had been created by the troublesome Prometheus would now
suffer and even with their gifts of fire, they would murder themselves, exploit one another,
hurt each other in the most vicious of ways and in the end, die miserable and old.
And so the mortals, like Prometheus, learned that in the end there was no getting the better
of Zeus and that the supreme god would always have the last laugh in the end.
Yet, amongst these terrible essences that flew from Pandora’s jar, one element remained - hope.
Even today, it is arguably the only element we have to cling unto in trying times.
Yet despite mankind having to suffer for Pandora’s curiosity and Epimetheus’ foolishness,
the two of them manage to carve out a fairly decent relationship. Nice for them, huh? Together
they would give birth to a daughter named Pyrrha, who as you might know would become one of the only
two mortals to survive the great deluge that was sent by Zeus, alongside her husband Deucalion.
Of course, you might blame Epimetheus for the terrible things that mankind was thought to endure
thereafter, for if he had never accepted Pandora as his brother had warned him, then none of the
evils inside the jar would be released. You might argue that given Pandora’s curious personality,
she might’ve gone ahead and opened the jar at some point anyway, even if Epimetheus had rejected her.
Additionally, it would appear that despite suffering as a result of Zeus’ master plan,
Zeus would still wipe out humanity anyway by drowning them all - thus in some capacity
rendering the jar and its contents irrelevant. With this tremendous power,
Zeus likely did not need Pandora to release the wicked things into the earth, much less
did he need Epimetheus to accept her. In short, Epimetheus’ failure to reject Pandora may not have
condemned man to suffering, for Zeus would have likely ensured man’s suffering one way or another.
As always guys, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode then don’t forget to give it a thumbs up
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Furthermore, if you like Greek mythology as much as I do,
you might want to check out a copy of our book ‘Greek Mythology Explained’,
where we retell a couple of our favourite myths and explore the meanings and themes behind them.
With that being said, I hope you all have a good evening and I’ll see you in the next one
Until next time