Pandora's Jar

In the beginning, the people lived without trouble. There was no hard work, no painful sickness, no old age that wore the body down. The earth gave food without asking. Then Zeus, king of the gods, grew angry at the human race, because Prometheus had stolen fire from heaven and given it to them.

Zeus said: "I will give them a gift in return for fire. A gift that will undo them."

He called Hephaestus, the smith of the gods, and told him to mix earth with water and shape from it the form of a beautiful young woman. Athena dressed her in a silver gown and taught her weaving. Aphrodite poured grace over her face and longing into her body. Hermes the messenger gave her a clever mind, a deceitful tongue, and the manners of a thief. The Graces hung gold chains around her neck. The Hours wreathed her hair with spring flowers.

When she was finished she was the first woman the world had seen. They called her Pandora, "all-gifted," because every god had given her something. She was so beautiful that even the gods stared.

Zeus put a jar into her hands. He said, "Take this jar to my brother on earth." He did not tell her what was inside. He told her only one thing: "Do not open it."

Hermes led her down to earth, to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. Prometheus had warned Epimetheus: "Whatever Zeus offers you, do not accept. Send it back." But Epimetheus saw Pandora and forgot the warning. He took her into his house and made her his wife.

For a while everything was as it had been. Pandora carried the jar with her. She set it down by the hearth. She looked at it. She wondered what was in it. Days went by, and she could not stop thinking about it. The lid called to her hands.

One morning, when no one was watching, she sat down beside the jar and lifted the lid.

Out came everything Zeus had put inside. Toil flew out, and sickness, and old age, and the hard kinds of grief. Out came envy and pride and cruelty. Out came everything that hurts a human life. They scattered in every direction, into the houses of the people, into the fields, into the air. They became part of the world.

Pandora screamed and slammed the lid back down. But she had been too slow. Almost everything was already gone.

One thing was still in the jar. It had been at the very bottom, slow to rise, and the closing of the lid had caught it before it escaped. Pandora bent down and listened. She heard a small voice speaking to her from inside. The voice was Elpis, hope. She had been put in the jar with the troubles, and now she was alone there. Pandora did not let her out.

That is why hope is what we have, and why she is hidden, while suffering walks freely in the world. The other things are out there, in the wind, in the body, in the heart. Hope stays sealed up, but she stays. She did not fly.

This is what Hesiod tells us, and he says we should know it. He says: do not blame Pandora alone. Zeus made the jar. Zeus put what was in it. Zeus gave it to her hands and told her not to open it, knowing she would. The gift was the gift he meant to give us. We have been living with it ever since.