Pandora: The Tale of a Good Girl Gone Bad?

When Pandora opened her box, as the Ancient Greek myth goes, all manner of evil was released into the world - ending the Golden Age of man and forsaking them to a life of death and rebirth. Being the first woman created by the gods, she was sent as a punishment. This set a very negative precedent for the women that would succeed her, and this sexism remains in modern times. However, Pandora was not always despised as the bringer of evil. Originally, she was seen as a life-giving goddess much like the better-known goddesses Gaea, Athena, and Demeter. Over the years, Pandora went from a revered goddess to the root of all evil, later to be conflated with other religions and immortalized in art and myth.

Pandora Unleashes a Punishment for Mankind

Pandora’ by John William Waterhouse, 1896. ( Public Domain )

The earliest written myth of Pandora comes from Hesiod in “Works and Days”, as well as his “Theogony” to a lesser extent. It is in these works that we see the first version of her as an ill-fated human that brought evil into the world. As the myth goes, she was the first woman created by the gods, Hephaestus and Athena at the request of Zeus. Zeus requested that she be made as a punishment to be unleashed on mankind, due to the transgressions of Prometheus, who had stolen fire from the gods and given it to man. Hephaestus molded her from the earth, just as man was created, but all of the gods gave her unique and seductive gifts - the translation of her name is “all-gifted.”

When Pandora was delivered to mankind, she brought with her a pithos (an ancient Greek vessel), later misconstrued as a box, which contained disease, pain, and various other evils that were released to the world. However, once the box was opened and Pandora saw all the evils fly out of it, she attempted to replace the lid, leaving one thing behind - hope. Thus, ended the Golden Age of man and the Silver Age began, in which man was...
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