PANDORA

Below: In Eva Prima Pandora, French painter Jean Cousin the Elder (1490—1560) compares the biblical figure of Eve to Pandora, the first woman in Greek mythology. Her left hand rests on a jar that she will eventually open, releasing suffering into the world.

In Greek mythology, Pandora is the first woman, a beautiful but problematic creature designed by the gods as a punishment for mortal men. Traditionally, curiosity compels Pandora to open a jar containing all kinds of ills and suffering, freeing the afflictions on humankind.

The principal accounts of the myth of Pandora are found in two works by Greek poet Hesiod (fl. 800 BCE), Theogony and Works and Days. While both versions have much in common, there are also many significant differences. Theogony gives her no name, but in Works and Days the name Pandora and its etymology play a central role. Pandora is sometimes compared to Eve from the Book of Genesis in the Bible, another first woman whose curiosity leads to trouble for humans. The problems that arose from Pandora’s curiosity have become proverbial, giving rise to the common expression to open a Pandora’s box.

In Theogony, which recounts the births of the gods, the creation or invention of humans requires no explanation. Although female divinities exist from the beginning of time, the first mortals are assumed to be male. Scholars of Greek mythology suggest that, because men were fashioned to appear like the gods and because asexual reproduction occurs among the gods, female partners for men were unnecessary. Unlike the account given in the Book of

Genesis, where woman is created as man’s companion, here woman is created as a source of woe for man. In each case the creation of woman is the beginning of human marriage, but in Theogony this too is presented as an evil. Hesiod held a pessimistic view of human existence that led him to conclude that children are more a burden than a cause for rejoicing. He likewise undervalued other female contributions to the family. Rather than offering physical and emotional companionship, contributing to the household resources, and bearing children, Hesiod declared that woman is a drain on resources, whose curiosity causes disaster.

In Hesiod the first woman is created by Hephaestus, god of fire and metalworking, who molds her out of clay. In this way she is like Adam in the Book of Genesis, who is also made from the earth, but unlike Eve, who is fashioned from Adam’s body. The Greek woman is made at the command of Zeus, chief of the gods, not to complete human existence, but as a punishment for mortals because they were enjoying the benefits of the gift of fire given to them by the Titan Prometheus. Womankind is only one of a series of deceitful gifts given to mortal men in the lengthy conflict involving Prometheus and Zeus.