In this article, I will explore one of the women of ancient Greek mythology and hopefully bring you some information that you may have not known or may have forgotten.

Pandora

Pandora is to Greek Mythology what Eve is to Christianity. She was the first woman on earth and was created by Hephaestus by the order from Zeus. Hephaestus was the god of craftsmanship. Hephaestus created her from a mixture of earth and water and she was endowed with gifts by the other gods. Apollo gave her the gift of music and Aphrodite gave her the gift of beauty. Other gods gave her qualities as well and her name, Pandora, loosely means “gifted one”.

Prometheus was a titan who created man and was unhappy with their lot so he stole fire from the heavens in a fennel stalk so Zeus would not see him take it and he showed man how to use it for light, to cook with, etc... This act angered Zeus because he thought that the fire was sacred and was only for use by the gods. This is when he had Hephaestus create Pandora and also ordered the other gods to endow her with gifts. Zeus then gave Pandora a jar and told her not to open it under any circumstances, knowing that she eventually would. He then gave Pandora to Epimethius, the younger brother of Prometheus.

Prometheus had the gift of being able to see what was going to happen in the future and warned his younger brother not to accept any gifts from Zeus. Captivated by her beauty, Epimethius ignored the warning and accepted Zeus's gift. They were soon married and while in Epimethius’s house, the lure of opening the jar was too great for her and she eventually opened the jar and unleashed the evils that we have in the world today. She unleashed despair, sickness, death and other evil things. When she realized what she had just done, she quickly capped the jar and trapped the one thing that could have helped mankind. Hope.

Mankind was destroyed but Pandora and Epimethus had a daughter. She was the first born mortal child. Her name was Pyrra and she married a man named Deukalion. Together, they survived the destruction of mankind which was known as the Great Deluge and it was up to them to repopulate the earth. Each would cast stones over their shoulders. Pyrra's stones would create woman and Duekalion's would create man.