Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora (ancient Greek Πανδώρα / Pandora, "all gifts") is the first woman. It is associated with the legend of "Pandora's box" (actually a jar). It is sometimes called Anesidora "one who brings these depths" in fact "the goddess of the earth which governs fertility.
Legend
Pandora was created at the behest of Zeus, who wanted to avenge the men for the theft of fire by Prometheus. It was also made in clay by Hephaestus, Athena then gave him life, he learned the manual dexterity (including it learned the art of weaving) and clothing; Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave him musical talent and Hermes taught him the lie and the art of persuasion.
Zeus offered the hand of Pandora to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus. Although he had promised to Prometheus to refuse gifts from Zeus, Epimetheus accepted Pandora. Pandora brought with him a jar containing mysterious all the ills of humanity, including old age, disease, war, famine, poverty, Madness, the Vice, deception and the Passion, and Hope , he was forbidden to open.
Once installed as a wife, she yielded to curiosity and opened the box: it freed and the evils contained therein. She closed the box too late to hold them, and only Hope, slower to react, remained locked up. Thus, explains that even if human beings are affected by many ills, he never lost hope.
Interpretation
One may wonder about the meaning of this legend. Why a jar containing all the ills of mankind would have also contained Hope? Which is the Iliad, to 527 and the following uses the term: in the home of Zeus, there were two jars, one enclosing the property, other evils. The Theogony of Hesiod does not mention it merely to state that without women, human life is not livable, and a woman, much more. Pandora Hesiod describes as a "beautiful evil" (καλὸν κακὸν / kalon Kakon).
For the name "Pandora", it can have several meanings: panta dora, which has all the gifts, or Pantone dora, that is the gift of all (the gods).
The reason for the presence of Hope with the ills lies in a better translation of the Greek text. The correct term is ἐλπίς / e̍lpís, defined as the expectation of something and was translated by hope, surely wrong. A better translation would have been anticipating, even irrational fear, so are the gods Elpida fears. Thanks to the timely closure of the jar by Pandora, humanity will not suffer the pain and not waiting for these ills, which is probably the worst of all.
Humanity does not live in constant fear of evils to come. Prometheus welcomes and to have issued the men of the obsession with death. Indeed yet another interpretation suggests that this evil is to know the time of his death and despondency that follows a lack ... hope.
Another symbol is found in this passage. The jar (pithos) is not a simple amphora is a very large vessel, used to store grain. This vase can be filled with grain as the effort, work in the field, and its contents is a symbolism of the human condition. Thereafter, it will be the woman who will open and be used to feed the family.
A reconciliation of this myth may further be done with the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis (Old Testament). In these two myths, the woman, but warned (by God in the Bible, or, here, by Prometheus and Zeus), who commits an irreparable error (in the forbidden fruit crisp in the Bible, or here in opening the Pandora's box), plunging humanity into a life of aches and pains. If the Bible seems a priori more lenient for the woman (who is pushed to the fault by the tempter serpent, which is not only the fault, since the result is shared with humans), it is punishable by this original sin by the fact "of children in pain."
The latest indications showed interpretations monotheistic (Judeo-Christian), representing the woman as the source of all evils. Rather, the mentality polytheistic it sees as Pandora that gave man the opportunity to improve in the trials and adversity (what monotheists call evil). It also gave him the strength to face these tests with the hope (hope). In pagan philosophy, Pandora is the source of evil and is the source of strength, dignity and beauty, because without adversity, human beings can improve.
Pandora in other traditions of ancient Greece
Pandora is in Diodorus of Sicily (Historical Library, Volume III, chapter on Atlantes) the name "alternative" of the mother-goddess and Titanide Rhea, regarded as the second-born of her race. Her older sister is Basiléia or Cybele, sister and wife of Hyperion (ibid.). In Argonauti Orphic, Pandora in the Heart of Steel "is a goddess chtonienne invoked by Medea at propriatoires rites of Enfers occurring at the same time as the triple Hecate. Orpheus is a priori the only ancient author to mention.(W3C)
Read also Devil
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