Pandora’s Box: The Origin of All Man’s Woes
by From: More Prisoners of Eternity.
From the tale of Eve and the Apple, to the myth of the chastity belt, the burnings of the Witch trials, and the use of the veil. Women have always been feared and never trusted. Whether in myth or reality, Pandora has always stepped in man’s shadow and sent a chill down his spine.
One day when Epimethus was away she approached the box, for many hours she just stared at it , but she could also see the key lying nearby. She could resist the temptation no longer and she took the key and opened the box. She would just have a quick peep inside, what harm could that do. But in a rush and before she knew it, burst forth all the evils, sorrows, plagues and misfortunes of the world: disease, despair, malice, greed,lust, hatred, violence, old-age and death. All were set free and unleashed upon the world. She quickly closed the box but it was too late. All she could save, and all that was left to man, was hope, that blind, eternal, spirit.
But this was part of Zeus’s plan also. He did not want man to despair of life, he wanted him to suffer. He wanted him to know how much the evils of the world tormented him. He must have hope so he can go on being tormented anew. For hope, as Nietszche said, ” is the most evil of evils for it prolongs man torments.”
The poet Hesiod, writing of Pandora remarked, ” from her is the race of women and female kind; from her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live among mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmates in hateful poverty but only in wealth.”
The story of Pandora may be a myth but it should be viewed in the masculine fear of femininity and the consequent subordination of women through the ages. From the Legend of the Fall, to the prohibition of religious texts, the Witch Craze, and the discrimination of secular law. Pandora lives with us now, has man’s and masculine societies attitudes to women really changed so much?
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Post CommentK.Reshma
On November 11, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Very nice
CaSundara
On November 13, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Cool article. I’m studying Greek history and mythology at the moment and it’s fascinating stuff. I have a poem here written by Semonides which I find hysterical. He compares women to various animals and generally insults them, reiterating Hesiod’s opinion. The funny thing is, what he says in the poem isn’t exactly untrue – it just needs balancing with an accurate description of men (written by women). I’m really enjoying learning about ancient Greek culture, and especially their attitudes towards sex. I got a whole load of books on sexuality, rape and magic in antiquity, and I’m totally engrossed.
Kim Seabrook
On November 13, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Thanks K and Cass. It is a fascinating study Cass, and I can understand why you are enjoying it so much. There is a wonderful scene in Lysistrata when the Athenian women gather around to ogle a Spartan woman,so unusual is she. You may already be aware of it, but it is worth picking up the DVD The Spartans by Bethany Hughes, if you can find it. The more you study it the more you realise that we know little more about gender, sexuality, and the psychology of humankind now than we did then. Though we like to think otherwise. I have to admit that of all the history I have written I have enjoyed writing, and I must say learning, about women more than anything else. Traditionally it has been men that have written the history, but it might surprise many just how often it has been women who have made it.