Pandora's Gift
Prometheus was not supposed to make mankind too much like the gods by giving them fire, language, and the ability to reason. But he did. For this, he received a punishment from Zeus: he would be eternally bound to the mountainside, with an eagle eating his liver by day, and his liver growing back by night.
A punishment for mankind was also needed, but here Zeus crafted something more devious and complex. First, he gifted to mankind the first woman: Pandora, whose name means all-gift, as each of the gods granted her a skill from their talents. She was presented to mankind, and they received her as a blessing from the gods. She soon fell in love, and a wedding took place. Zeus attended the reception and brought the second part of the punishment as the bride’s present. He handed her a gold gilded jar and received her praise of its beauty. “Just one note—” he said to her, “never open it.” And with those words, he left her admiring her jar, which she put in the entrance to her house for all her guests to see.
Time passed and her blissful gratitude slowly gave way to wondering about the contents of the jar. What could it possibly hold, why would she not be allowed to open it, and what possible reasons would Zeus have to present her with something she could possess but not examine, admire but not explore? She tried to put it out of her mind. She moved it out of sight, and then even buried it to stop the nagging thoughts. But more and more restlessly she struggled to sleep each night while her curiosity grew like a cancer.
Finally one sleepless night she rose from her bed in a stupor of madness. She had to know what was in the jar. She ran to the garden, found the disturbed dirt, and clawed at it with her bare hands until it gave way, uncovering the object she sought. She beheld it for a moment, and in the next she tore the seal and lifted the lid.
Pandora was not prepared for the horrors that flew from their confinement into the breathing space of the world. Escaping from the jar came Deceit, Misery, Blame; Greed, Envy, Pain. She realized the mistake she had made, but it took her a dreaded moment to grab the lid. She desperately struggled to shove back against the evils Disease and Hunger; Want and Poverty; War, Violence, and Death as they fled quickly to disperse into the night. With one determined push she managed to depress the seal. In the end, one child of Erebus was left captured in the jar: Hope.
Is hope good?