Until then, mankind lived life in a paradise without worry. Hermes told Epimetheus that Pandora was a gift to the titan from Zeus, and he warned Epimetheus not to open the jar, which was Pandora’s dowry. However, when Pandora arrived, he fell in love with her and married her despite the warning he had been given. Before he was chained to the rock, Prometheus had warned Epimetheus to be wary of any gifts given by the gods. The most significant of these gifts, however, was a pithos or storage jar, given to Pandora either by Hermes or Zeus. Thus the name Pandora-”all gifts”-in Hesiod’s version derives from the fact that she received gifts from all deities. Zeus gave her insatiable curiosity and mischievousness. Pandora was given several traits from the different gods: Hephaestus molded her out of clay and gave her form Athena clothed her and the Charites adorned her with necklaces made by Hephaestus Aphrodite gave her beauty Apollo gave her musical talent and a gift for healing Demeter taught her to tend to a garden Poseidon gave her a pearl necklace and the ability to never drown Hera gave her curiosity Hermes gave her cunning, boldness, and charm. More specifically, Pandora, her name meaning ‘all gifts’ (Though, it is believed by some that she was once known as Anesidora). However, Zeus also had to punish mankind.
Zeus commanded that Prometheus reveal the name of the mother, but Prometheus refused, instead choosing to suffer the punishment. Another possible reason for Prometheus’ torment was because he knew which of Zeus’ lovers would bear a child who would eventually overthrow Zeus. Prometheus was an immortal titan, so the liver grew back every day, but he was still tormented daily from the pain, until he was freed by Heracles during The Twelve Labors. Zeus, enraged, decided to punish Prometheus by chaining him in unbreakable fetters and set an eagle over him to eat his liver each day. So Prometheus set forth to steal fire from the hearth on Mount Olympus and handed it over to man. Prometheus (“foresight”), his brother, felt that because man was superior to all other animals, man should have a gift no other animal possessed. However, when it was time to give man a positive trait, as Prometheus, his brother, had taken much longer to create man, there was nothing left. The titan Epimetheus (“hindsight”) was responsible for giving a positive trait to each and every animal. The evidence of the vase-painters reveals another, earlier aspect of Pandora.
In modern times, Pandora’s Box has become a metaphor for the unanticipated consequences of technical and scientific development. 700 BC, has a very early told and literary version of the Pandora story. Hesiod, both in his Theogony (briefly, without naming Pandora outright, line 570) and in Works and Days, ca. In all literary versions, however, the myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world. The myth of Pandora is very old, appears in several distinct versions, and has been interpreted in many ways. According to the myth, Pandora opened a container jar ( pithos) releasing all the evils of mankind- greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining- leaving only hope inside once she had closed it again. Her other name, inscribed (“nesidora”) against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum, is Anesidora, “she who sends up gifts”. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create her as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus’ theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her seductive gifts. In Greek mythology Pandora (“all-gifted”) was the first woman.
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