 The first woman created by the gods who opened the lid of a magic jar containing all the evils which plague mankind. |
Pandora was the first human woman created by gods, specifically by Hephaestus and Athena on the instructions of Zeus. Each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Athena taught her needlework and weaving; Aphrodite “shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs”, Hermes gave her a shameful mind and deceitful nature and he also gave her the power of speech, putting in her “lies and crafty words”. Athena then clothed her followed with Persuasion and the Charites adorning her with necklaces and other finery. The Horae adorned her with a garland crown. Finally, Hermes gives this woman a name: Pandora – “All-gifted” – “because all the gods gave her a gift. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold her out of earth as part of the punishment of humanity for Prometheus’ theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her “seductive gifts”. Pandora’s deceitful feminine nature becomes the least of humanity’s worries. For she brings with her a box containing “burdensome toil and sickness that brings death to men”, diseases, and “a myriad other pains”. Prometheus, fearing further reprisals, had warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus. But Epimetheus did not listen; he accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her box. As a result, it is said that the earth and sea are full of evils”. One item, however, did not escape the jar, which is Hope. The opening of the jar serves as the beginning of the Silver Age, in which man is now subject to death, and with the introduction of woman to birth as well, giving rise to the cycle of death and rebirth. Pandora’s creation was also brought on by Prometheus, when he stole Fire from Mt. Olympus and gave it to mortal man, and then it resulted in Zeus punishing the technologically advanced society by creating woman. |
| Pantheon | Greek Mythology |
| Aliases | Anesidora (the sender of gifts), ‘All-gifted’ |
| Race | Mortal Human (the first woman) |
| Personify | The introduction of evil, suffering, and hope into the human world; female curiosity |
| Equipment (symbols, arms etc.) | A ‘pithos’ (a large storage jar, often mistranslated as “box”) containing all the world’s evils and hope |
| Consorts | Epimetheus (Titan of afterthought) |
| Parents | Created by Hephaestus (on the orders of Zeus); no biological parents, though she is sometimes called a daughter of Zeus |
| Offspring | Pyrrha (who, with her husband Deucalion, survived the great flood and repopulated the earth) |
| Ocupation | The first woman; a divine punishment sent to mankind |
| Equivalents | Eve (Abrahamic traditions); the concept of the “first woman” in various cultures |
| Affiliations | The Olympian gods (as their creation); the household of Epimetheus |
| Alignment | Neutral (an instrument of Zeus’s will, not inherently evil herself) |
| Other | Her story is a theodicy explaining the origin of human suffering. The ‘Pandora’s Box’ is a modern misnomer; the original artifact was a jar (pithos). |
