And so Pandora and her virtues and vices were sent to Earth. Once there, the messenger gods Iris and Hermes brought to Pandora a large box. Pandora was asked to watch it until they returned and warned sternly against opening the box under any circumstances.

But Pandora's curiosity got the best of her. She fretted for days, but finally gave in to temptation, and thought it would not hurt to take a peek. As soon as she cracked open the box, out flew evil, disease, death, sickness, hatred, war, crime, sorrow and all other ills that afflict people. With his usual good hindsight, Epimethus told Pandora to close the box, and she obeyed, trapping hope within.

At first, Memo could not remember the next part of this myth, a Grecian interlude mostly unrelated to this story. Lying awake in her bed later that night however, she did remember it. In order to satisfy the appetites of the curious, it has been provided below...

Later, Pyrrha found Pandora's Box. She opened it and let hope out of the box. Once again, there was hope for humankind.



What Memo remembered later:

Before Pandora's opened the box, Civilization had passed through two ages: the Golden Age (a time of peace) when laws, judges and the plow were not needed; and the Silver Age (a time of plenty) when Zeus made winter and mortals began to plow the earth and plant their food. After Pandora's box was opened, the Bronze Age (a time of crime) began. Mortals made weapons and property was divided up between people. Some got more, some got less, and inequality and injustice were widespread. During the Bronze Age, crime became so terrible that Zeus decided to walk the Earth to see what motivated humans to commit crimes against other humans. Zeus went in the guise of a mortal, but gave a sign that a god had come to Earth.

The Arcadian King Lycaon mocked Zeus, laughed at prayers and all those who made sacrifices to the gods. To insult Zeus all the more, Lycaon killed a fellow human, cooked him in a stew and planned to feed him to Zeus. Lycaon was angry with Zeus because his daughter, the Arcadian nymph Callisto, had been turned into a bear by Zeus' wife Hera (Hera was in turn angered that the nymph had given birth to Zeus' son). While on Earth, Zeus was so distressed by Lycaon that he condemned him to roam the world with wolves. He then asked the other gods on Mount Olympus for permission to destroy the rest of humankind for their evil ways, and the gods agreed. The world would be destroyed by flood.

Two good people, Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and Pyrrha, the red-haired daughter of Pandora, were spared by the gods and put on a boat. After the flood, their boat came to rest on the twin peaks of Mount Parnassus--the center of the earth. There they consulted the oracle Themis, daughter of Heaven and Earth (Uranus and Gaea), keeper of the scales of justice and protector of oppressed people. Themis told them: "Cover your heads and throw your mother's bones behind you."

Deucalion and Pyrrha were befuddled. They prayed. They thought. Then Deucalion had it: their mother was the Earth. Her bones were stones. So they threw stones over their shoulders, and the stones lost their hardness and took on the form of humans. The stones Deucalion threw turned into men, while the stones thrown by Pyrrha turned into women. In this way, the population was replenished. From their own son Hellen, all Greek tribes descended.

...and later Pyrrha found Pandora's Box. She opened it and let hope out of the box. Once again, there was hope for humankind.



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