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When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. Hesiod rewrote her myth in Works and Days. This woman is unnamed in the Theogony, but is probably Pandora. After Hephaestus does so, Athena dressed her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, garlands and a crown of gold. This woman is described as a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the race of men. He commands Hephaestus to make the first woman from earth. Zeus is angry about this and decides to punish men, as a compensation for the gift. Prometheus has stolen the gift of fire, and has given it to the humans. This version does not give the woman a name. The Pandora myth first appears in lines 560–612 of Hesiod's poem the Theogony. 4 All-giving Pandora: a mythic inversion.He for whom Zeus the lord of thunder mixes the gifts he sends, will meet now with good and now with evil fortune but he to whom Zeus sends none but evil gifts will be pointed at by the finger of scorn, the hand of famine will pursue him to the ends of the world, and he will go up and down the face of the earth, respected neither by gods nor men.
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The immortals know no care, yet the lot they spin for man is full of sorrow on the floor of Zeus' palace there stand two urns, the one filled with evil gifts, and the other with good ones. There is an older story that tells that urns and jars can contain blessings and evils which is told in Homer's Illiad: In his Works and Days he gives the oldest known literary version of the story. He shortly mentions it in his Theogony, in line 570, but does not name Pandora. The oldest versiion is that of Hesiod, who wrote it in the 7th century BC. In the literary versions, the myth is a kind of theodicy, it addresses the question why there is evil in the world. It has been interpreted in different ways. The myth of Pandora is ancient, and there are several different Greek versions. Pandora opened the jar because she was curious what was inside, and not because of malice. The word pithos has been translated the wrong way, which may have led to the idea of " Pandora's box". When Pandora closed the jar again, only Hope was left inside.
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With the exception of plagues and diseases, Hesiod does not specify the evils in detail. Īccording to the myth, Pandora opened a jar ( pithos) and released all the evils of mankind. This name was found inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum. Another name was found for her was Anesidora, she who sends gifts. All the gods helped by giving her seductive gifts. This was part of the punishment of mankind, because Prometheus had stolen the secret of fire. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mould her out of Earth. According to Hesiod, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first mortal woman.
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