What is Pandora? Pandora's Box in the Myths of Ancient Greece

Quite often we have to hear the phrase"Open the Pandora's box." What does this mean? In which cases is this expression used? And what is Pandora? Let's look at these subtleties. After the acclaimed James Cameron film Avatar, many believe that Pandora is a fictional planet on which cats of blue creatures live. But the box did not have a planet, and it could not be. The casket was held by Zeus, the king of the divine Olympus. And what was there inside? Why phraseology is used in a negative sense? For this we need to remember the myth of Prometheus. It was from the action of this titan who disobeyed Zeus and gave fire to people, and the story of Pandora went. How did it happen? Now we'll find out.

Myths of Ancient Greece

Pandora is born as a weapon of revenge. In the ancient world, the gods were not at all a standard of high morality. Greeks recognized their idols as anger, jealousy, lust, deceit and brutal cruelty. They were envious, these Olympic gods. And when they found out that the despicable people received fire from Prometheus, which almost equaled them to the celestials, they became angry. The gods gathered on the advice and devised a terrible revenge.

Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create from the earth and waterthe girl, Pandora. This was not the first woman on earth, so do not compare her with the biblical Eve. What is Pandora? A woman who does not know that she is a weapon of revenge, as they would now say, a "blind courier". The gods first wanted to punish the family of Prometheus, and then people who, they believed, never got a fire for nothing.

Comprehensive giftedness

So, Hephaestus created the body of Pandora from wet clay. His wife, the goddess of beauty Aphrodite, endowed the idol with inexplicable delights. Athena-Pallas wove rich clothes for her. Hera - the mother of the gods - endowed her with intelligence, and the winged Hermes gave her resourcefulness, resourcefulness and oratorical art. Well, Zeus breathed into her soul. Other gods also gave the girl something of her strength. Hence the meaning of the name Pandora. From Ancient Greek it is translated as "all gifted". But the main present, which, along with the soul, was handed to her by Zeus, was an irrepressible curiosity. Further, the myths of Greece and Rome concerning Pandora and her casket differ.

According to the Hellenes, which is in the poemHesiod "Works and Days," the satyrs brought the damsel from Olympus to the ground directly to the house of Epitomeus, the younger brother of Prometheus. She had a casket with her-as a dowry from Zeus. The Roman version is more logical: a box in the house of the Epitomeus brings the cunning Hermes-Mercury, leaving it for a while as his luggage.

What was in the box?

As for the contents of the box, both Greek and RomanMyths are the same. There were locked up the misfortunes, illnesses and troubles that Zeus-Jupiter wanted to put on the human race. And in this he was helped by Pandora's curiosity. When Epimtheme, whose name, by the way, translates as "thinking later", decided to marry a beautiful girl, the Tsar of Olympus handed the bride a casket to a dowry, ordering him to never open it. The Supreme God knew that she would look inside at the first opportunity. And punishment for all people will be the box of Pandora. Myths of Ancient Greece tell how a frightened girl slammed the lid, so there was hope at the bottom of the casket.

The Roman version

According to her, the gods first wanted to hand overbeautiful Pandora himself to the titan Prometheus. But he refused to accept such a gift, rightly believing that there must be some kind of dirty trick in him. Prometheus also discouraged his brother from marrying, but the latter became obstinate and said that such a beautiful creature as Pandora can not bring grief.

The casket appeared on the scene later, when Epimemei alreadymarried a heavenly girl. He brought Mercury, who, under the guise of a tired wanderer, asked the landlord to leave a heavy load for a while. Epimemei agreed. But there was curiosity in Pandora. She approached the trunk and looked at it. And then she heard as if someone else's whisper. What? Pandora put her ear to the casket. Indeed, the voices begged to open the lid. The poor girl could not resist the temptation and opened the trunk. At the same instant, small creatures with brown wings began to bite and sting her, ran up to the cries of the spouse and other people. In horror, Pandora slammed the lid shut. But then she heard a weak voice: "Open up and me, I will heal you of your wounds." The girl obeyed. That was hope - the only consolation that vindictive Zeus gave to people along with troubles and illnesses.

Pandora's Box: the Meaning of Phraseology

Both the Greeks and Romans laid the blame for the existence of evil on the gods. Thus, as can be seen from the myth, opening the chest sent by Zeus was a rash, fatal step.

Evil, once released from the casket, is no longer collectedback. The expression "open the Pandora's box" became a phraseological phrase. Now it means that some act can lead to irreversible consequences, some point of no return. A synonym for this phraseology can serve another - "Release the genie from the bottle." He refers us to the tales of "Thousand and One Nights", in which often depict evil demons locked in sealed vessels.

Other Pandora

A name with the meaning "all gifted" was popularin ancient Greece, so they were called girls. It is known that this was the name of the daughter of Erechthea, the daughter of the king of Athens. Also Pandora is the protagonist of the drama of Sophocles and the comedy of Nikofon. The myth of a beautiful girl, created from the earth and water, for whom Athena's garments wove, proved tenacious and penetrated into the European culture of the New Time. In the XVII century, when they began to sell ready-made clothes, pandores began to call dummies to demonstrate samples of fashionable styles. But there are other meanings of the word. If you ask the astronomer what Pandora is, he will immediately tell you that this is one of Saturn's satellites. It rotates in the orbit of this planet with the "spouse" - the Epithecy. And the name Pandora was named surprisingly enduring virus, found by biologists in the reservoirs of Chile and Australia. In addition, in the Republic of Khakassia, in the Kuznetsk Alatau, on the bank of the White Iyusa there is a cave, which is called the Box of Pandora.