At The Bottom Of Pandora's Box

We've all heard about this box, and we all know the name Pandora. But who was she really, and what was the importance of that box? Today I'd like to share with you the ancient Greek origin mythology.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

Pandora is actually the ancient Greek version of Eve; she was the first woman, not born, but created by the Gods. And she wasn't the first female; there already were female Goddesses and Titans, but Pandora was the first mortal woman and was created as a punishment for men, who had angered Zeus, the leaser of mount Olympus, the home of all Gods.

But let's start at the beginning. Like all cultures, the ancient Greek had their own mythological version of how the universe came to be, and theirs was one of the richest where comes to pure scope of the imagination, at least that I'm familiar with. The biblical account of the seven days in which the Abrahamic God did all his miraculous works simply pales in comparison. At least when viewed purely as folklore, as a narrative, the Greek origin story beats Genesis by the proverbial mile.

The Greek (I almost spelled "Geek" here...) origin story begins with Chaos, which is something else than "nothing"; Chaos simply means that there was no order to things, lo logic, no light. Out of this chaos emerged Gaia, our planet, as well as several other divine entities like the Abyss (part of the underworld), the Erebus (the unknowable place where death dwells) and Eros (love). Gaia was female and she's subject of the first immaculate conception, as she gives birth to Uranus (the sky) without male assistance.

Uranus went on to fertilize Gaia, and she then gave birth to the Titans, the precursors and ancestors of the Gods that were to populate mount Olympus. In total there were six female and six male Titans, and after the birth of Cronus, one of the boys, Gaia and Uranus decided to have no more kids. Now, from here on things get even wilder on the one hand, but also the story becomes a familiar tale of "sins of the father" and male envy; Cronus overthrows his father and and takes over his rule. He doesn't just defeat him though, but cuts of his genitals and throws them into the sea, and from that Aphrodite is born, Goddess of beauty, sexuality and love.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

There were only twelve Titans, so incestuous relationships are bound to happen; Cronus' wife Rhea was also his sister as well as the mother of their children. Cronus however, had learned from Gaia and Uranus that one day he would be overthrown by one of his children, so he... swallowed each and every one of them. He knew the prophecy was true because he himself betrayed his father to win the throne; hence the baby-gobbling. I don't exactly know how many babies he ate, but Rhea became fed up with this and decided to save one of her children.

To do this, she devised a simple but effective plan: when her son Zeus was born, she wrapped a cloth around a rock and gave that to Cronus to swallow. Now we all know that Zeus grew up to become the ruler of mount Olympus, but not before he gave his father a poisoned drink that made him vomit, throwing up all the other children, Zeus' siblings and his future court on Olympus. Zeus then declares war on Cronus and his fellow Titans, a war he and his fellow Olympians manage to win, after which the Titans are imprisoned in the Abyss, Tartarus even, the deepest, darkest, most hellish part of the underworld. All Titans were imprisoned there, except the brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. Note that Prometheus translates into "foresight" and Epimetheus to "hindsight", the first being the smart one and the latter kind of retarded.

Zeus had the same fear as his father, and low and behold, it was prophesied that his first wife, Methis, would give birth to a God greater than he. So he... swallowed Methis, but not before she was already pregnant with her daughter Athena. From within Zeus, these two females made his life miserable until Athena burst out of his head, fully grown and dressed for war. But Zeus maintained his position as ruler of mount Olympus, despite all challenges to his power. Zeus then instructed Prometheus and Athena to create mankind; we're finally entering the story here!

Prometheus shaped man from clay, and Athena breathed life into the figure. Now, Prometheus is a true champion of mankind, as he not only created us, but gave us the technology of fire. This did not please Zeus, so he took fire back from man, but Prometheus tricked him, stole fire again and gave it back to mankind. For this Zeus punished him in one of the many creative ways thought up in Greek mythology: he was chained to a rock, where an eagle would eat his liver every day, only for it to grow back at night so the ordeal could start anew the next day. And the next, and the next... Heracles later releases him from his chains though.

_{source: Wikipedia}

Zeus is as vindictive as the Old Testament God of the Bible, so humankind needed to be punished too, and for that purpose he created the first woman, Pandora, who was beautiful, intelligent, seductive and curious. It was through Pandora that mankind would receive punishment, and many children would learn that it's no good to be too curious. Pandora married with Epimetheus and Zeus gave them a box as a wedding present, but warned them to never open it. Of course curiosity got the better of Pandora, she opened the box, and all bad things came out; all kinds of evil, plagues, diseases and misfortunes poured out of the box and into the world of mankind... Pandora quickly shut the box, but it was already too late, so she starts crying. When Epimetheus comes to see what is wrong, she shows him the empty box... but finds that hope is still inside!

On this hopeful note I'll end this shortened version of the Greek origin mythology. What I like about this, is that it doesn't entail the creation of something out of nothing, that the earth is the birthplace of the Gods, and not the other way around; it all has, despite the fantastical swallowing of next generations and mutilation of previous ones, a strong secular vibe to it. And maybe this is where we are now, at the bottom of Pandora's box, with blockchain technology making access to money more democratic, and strong indications that things like Universal Basic Income become part of political and social discourse, the efforts made to fight pollution and preserve nature; maybe we've dug through most of the bad and we're finding some hope at the bottom of it all... I can only hope.

If all this has made you curious about ancient Greek thought-processes, please listen to the latest podcast from Sean Carroll, as he explores the theme of robots, androids, automatons and A.I. in Greek mythology; things you think wouldn't even be thinkable back then are in fact a major part of the narrative.

_{Adrienne Mayor on Gods and Robots in Ancient Mythology}

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