Pandora's Box

Author’s Notes

The brief myth of Pandora’s Box has its importance and influence on the legacy of human literature for being a narrative that, in a few words, summarizes in a simple and ephemeral way what all the main Religions, eastern and western, seek to teach.

It is a story that was born in the collective unconscious of Ancient Greece, a civilization that overflowed with knowledge and ideas that taught all other peoples and ethnicities in the world the excellence and importance of Democracy, Justice, Philosophy, Art, and Sports.

The mythological nature of the narrative presents the reader with Gods, Elements, Giants, and Perfect Places that relate directly to the human psyche and communicates with the gigantic array of archetypes that live in the mind of each and every reader.

My version, inspired by Thomas Bulfinch’s mythological collection, seeks to filter the most essential of the inspiring lesson that, along with all the secrets of the universe, dwells in the mysterious depths of Pandora’s Box. It is now up to you, the brave reader to cultivate enough curiosity to open your own box and learn what awaits to be found.

Pandora’s Box

Before everything existed, all things inhabited the same place and had the same appearance, a substance of liquid and unstable form called Chaos that kept within itself the seeds of everything that was necessary to create life.

In collaboration with some Olympian Gods, Zeus decided one day to unleash Chaos, extracting from within all the ingredients that were necessary to create Gaia, mother nature. With a divine effort, he separated air from water, earth from wind, and good from evil. Thus releasing the elements that would shape the planet as we know it today. Plains, canyons, mountains, glaciers, mountain ranges, waterfalls, islands, rivers, volcanoes, and the ocean appeared, which were promptly inhabited by plant life, fertile soils, trees, forests, flowers, fruits, and plants.

Then, at the behest of Zeus, Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus, titans who inhabited the earth before the creation of man descended to Earth and were assigned to finish the mission of creating the most perfect of places. Soon the Sun and Moon appeared, the air cleared, the fruits ripened and the stars began to spark. Prometheus, with his toolbox, started the creation of animals, giving them the attributes necessary to survive, such as claws, gills, fur, and fangs.

The fish took possession of the sea, the birds took to the air and the four-legged beasts ruled the land, but a nobler beast was still desired, so using clay and molding it with water, Prometheus made man in the image of the Gods, gave him an upright posture, in such a way that while the other animals turned their faces downwards looking towards the earth, the man could raise his face to the sky and split the stars.

At that moment, it was noticed that no attributes were left in the toolbox as they had all been used on the other animals. Then, from his pocket, Epimetheus decided to take the bag that kept the virtues, thus beginning to distribute to man gifts such as love, honor, faith, bravery, strength, wisdom, knowledge, language, and loyalty. Prometheus, determined to finish that mission, decided to ascend to Olympus and with the help of Minerva, Goddess of Arts and Wisdom, and without the permission of the other Gods, lit his torch in the chariot of the sun, bringing to man the gift of Fire. Giving him the possibility to create weapons to protect himself against the beasts, the tools to cultivate the land, and the brushes to create art, paving the way for the creation of coins and trade.

Zeus, furious at Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven, decided to call the Gods again to create the Woman with the aim of punishing the Titan brothers for presuming to steal fire from heaven; and the man for having accepted the gift. The first woman was called Pandora. It was made in heaven, and each god contributed something to perfect her. Aphrodite gave her fertility, Venus beauty, Artemis intuition, Apollo music, Gaia motherhood, and Athena intelligence. Thus equipped, she was led to the land where she met Epimetheus, who gladly found her.

After meeting Pandora, Epimetheus welcomed her into his house and began to become familiar with her presence, being the first woman to inhabit the earth, Pandora was unlike anything he had seen, what caught his attention the most was her delicacy, the care she took with things and with herself, her dedication to always being beautiful, smelling of floral fragrances and having on her skin the softness of a rose petal. Time passed and when Epimetheus was away, finishing the creation, Pandora enjoyed nature, painting, sculpting, and taking care of animals and plants, nurturing them, and giving them affection.

Epimetheus had in his house a box in which he kept certain powerful items, things he had not yet used in the process of preparing the man for his new abode. Epimetheus always made it clear to Pandora that that box contained things very important to the creation of the universe and that she could not open it under any circumstances without his presence, but one day, Pandora was taken by an impatient curiosity to find out, after all, the contents of that box.

Epimetheus was far away and Pandora had already done her day’s activities, overcome by boredom, she concluded that a quick peek would not hurt anyone. She opened the lid to see what was there but was immediately thrown back as she let escape from the box myriads of plagues on men such as anxiety, fever, rheumatism, smallpox, and colic for women, other things also escaped in the blink of an eye, such as war, lying, violence, envy, adultery, revenge, misery, evil, anger, disease, hunger, poverty, and death. All the worst that could be on earth found its way to freedom at that moment and spread far away and wide.

Pandora, very worried, hurried to get up and put the lid back on the box, but unfortunately, everything had already escaped and the box seemed empty, however, as she approached it to close it, she noticed that something remained inside, shining like the sunlight in the very bottom of the box. Immediately Pandora was taken by the feeling of the purest joy and comfort as a tear rolled down her cheek, and she realized that what had remained was the only thing necessary for an uncertain and frightening future.

Hope.

Dedication

To my parents, aunt, and brother,
That in the face of all challenges,
Never let me miss that which was essential.

To godfather Ademar,
For teaching me the value of Faith and Humility,
And for sheltering me when even hope had escaped my box.

to Gaia,
for renewing itself every day,
And staying strong in the face of human carelessness.