I'll give another gift
To men, an evil thing for their delight,
And all will love this ruin in their hearts."
So spoke the father of men and gods, and laughed.
He told Hephaestus quickly to mix earth
And water, and to put in it a voice
And human power to move, to make a face
Like an immortal goddess, and to shape
The lovely figure of a virgin girl.
Athena was to teach the girl to weave,
And golden Aphrodite pour charm
Upon her head, and painful, strong desire,
And body-shattering cares, Zeus ordered, then,
The killer of Argos, Hermes, to put in
Sly manners and morals of a bitch.
The son of Cronus spoke, and was obeyed.
The lame god molded earth as Zeus decreed
Into the image of a modest girl,
Gray-eyed Athena made her robes and belt,
Divine Seduction and the Graces gave
Her golden necklaces, and for her head
The Seasons wove spring flowers into a crown.
Hermes the messenger put in her breast
Lies and persuasive words and cunning ways;
The herald of the gods then named the girl
Pandora, for the gifts which all the gods
Had given her, this ruin of mankind.
The deep and total trap was now complete:
The father sent the gods' fast messenger
To bring the gift to Epimetheus.
And Epimetheus forgot the words
His brother said to take no gift from Zeus,
But send it back, so that it would not injure men.
Before this time men lived upon the earth
Apart from sorrow and from painful work,
Free from disease, which brings the death-gods in.
But now the woman opened up the jar
And scattered pains and evils among men.
Inside the jar's hard walls remained one thing,
Hope, only, which did not fly out through the opening.
The lid stopped her, but all the others flew,
Thousands of troubles, wandering the earth.
The earth is full of evils, and the sea.
Diseases come to visit men by day
And, uninvited, come again at night
Bringing their pains in silence, for they were
Deprived of speech by Zeus the wise. And so
There is no way to flee the mind of Zeus.
Hesiod's Theogony from The Greeks: History, Culture and Society by Ian Morris and Barry B. Powel, pg. 31-33, Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey, 2006.
Many of the ideas of Western religion, including its rampant misogyny, have roots in early Indo-European, Mediterranean, Near Eastern, or Scandinavian mythology. In the religion of ancient Greece, for example, the beginning of the universe, according to Hesiod's Theogony, begins with Gaia and Uranos coming out of Chaos, followed by Eros, Nyx, and Erebos. Compare this theory, in conjunction with the story of Pandora, with the following excerpt, the first lines of the epic poem, from Book I of John Milton's Paradise Lost:
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and the earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aeonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou Know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low and raise and support;
That, to the highth of this great argument,
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
The Complete Poems of John Milton, edited by Charles W. Eliot, Harvard Classics ed., pg. 90-91, P.F Collier and Son, New York, 1909.
Another example from Scandinavian mythology is when the Norse god Odin sacrifices himself on the Tree of Knowledge in order to gain the knowledge of the runes for all mankind. He hanged himself from the tree and was speared in the side to ensure his death. Does this not sound familiar? Even the idea of giants has roots in these earlier religions.
For more information on Greek mythology, see:
The Complete Dictionary of Symbols in Myth, Art and Literature, general editor: Jack Tresidder
Classical Mythology, 7th edition by Mark P.O Morford and Robert J. Lenardon
Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology by Michael Grant and John Hazel
The Greeks: History, Culture, and Society by Ian Morris and Barry P. Powel
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
For information about Norse mythology, visit http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/mythology.html.
For information about Near Eastern mythology, peruse the links at http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/nemythology/.
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