Pandora's box is an artefact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem Works and Days.Hesiod, Works and Days 47–105. Hesiod related that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing various deadly evils upon mankind, such as brutal toil and terrible illnesses. Later depictions of the story have been varied, with some literary and artistic treatments focusing more on the contents than on Pandora herself.
The container mentioned in the original account was actually a large storage jar, but the word was later mistranslated. In modern times an idiom has grown from the story meaning "Any source of great and unexpected troubles",Chambers Dictionary, 1998 or alternatively "A present which seems valuable but which in reality is a curse".Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1992
In mythology
According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus, the king of the gods, took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus. Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing "harsh toil" and "grievous sicknesses", and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world.West 1988, pp. 39–40: "For formerly the tribes of men on earth lived remote from ills, without harsh toil and grievous sicknesses that are deadly to men. But the woman unstopped the jar and let it all out, and brought grim cares upon mankind. Only Hope remained there inside in her secure dwelling, under the lip of the jar, and did not fly out, because the woman put the lid back in time by the providence of Zeus the cloud-gatherer who bears the aegis. But for the rest. countless troubles roam among men: full of ills is the earth, and full the sea. Sickness visits men by day, and others by night, uninvited, bringing ill to mortals silently, because Zeus the resourceful deprived them of voice. Thus there is no way to evade the purpose of Zeus."; compare Hesiod, Works and Days 90–105. Though she hastened to close the container, only one thing was left behind – usually translated as Hope, though it could also have the pessimistic meaning of "deceptive expectation".Brill's Companion to Hesiod, Leiden NL 2009, p.77
Modern usage From this story has grown the idiom "to open a Pandora's box", meaning to do or start something that will cause many unforeseen problems. A modern, more colloquial equivalent is "to open a can of worms".
Etymology of the "box"
The word translated as "box" was actually a large jar (πίθος pithos) in Greek.Schlegel and Weinfield, "Introduction to Hesiod" p. 6Meagher 2314, p. 148 Pithoi were used for storage of wine, oil, grain or other provisions, or, ritually, as a container for a human body for burying, from which it was believed souls escaped and necessarily returned.Cf. Harrison, Jane Ellen, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek history, Chapter II, "The Pithoigia", pp. 42–43. Cf. also Figure 7 which shows an ancient Greek pot painting in the University of Jena where Hermes is presiding over a body in a pithos buried in the ground. "In the vase painting in fig. 7 from a lekythos in the University Museum of Jena we see a Pithoigia of quite other and solemn booty. A large pithos is sunk deep into the ground. It has served as a grave. ... The vase-painting in fig. 7 must not be regarded as an actual conscious representation of the rupent rite performed on the first day of the Anthesteria. It is more general in content; it is in fact simply a representation of ideas familiar to every Greek, that the pithos was a grave-jar, that from such grave-jars souls escaped and to them necessarily returned, and that Hermes was Psychopompos, Evoker and Revoker of souls. The vase-painting is in fact only another form of the scene so often represented on Athenian white lekythoi, in which the souls flutter round the grave-stele. The grave-jar is but the earlier form of sepulture; the little winged figures, the Keres, are identical in both classes of vase-painting." Many scholars see a close analogy between Pandora herself, who was made from clay, and the clay jar which dispenses evils.Cf. Jenifer Neils 2005, p.41 especially: "They ignore, however, Hesiod's description of Pandora's pithos as arrektoisi or unbreakable. This adjective, which is usually applied to objects of metal, such as gold fetters and hobbles in Homer (Il. 13.37, 15.20), would strongly imply that the jar is made of metal rather than earthenware, which is obviously capable of being broken."
The mistranslation of pithos is usually attributed to the 16th-century humanist Erasmus who, in his Latin account of the story of Pandora, changed the Greek pithos to pyxis, meaning "box".Meagher 1995, p. 56. In his notes to Hesiod's Works and Days (p. 168) M.L. West has surmised that Erasmus may have confused the story of Pandora with that found elsewhere of a box which was opened by Psyche. The context in which the story appeared was Erasmus' collection of proverbs, the Adagia (1508), in illustration of the Latin saying Malo accepto stultus sapit ("from experiencing trouble a fool is made wise"). In his version the box is opened by Epimetheus, whose name means 'Afterthought' – or as Hesiod comments, "he whom mistakes made wise".William Watson Baker, The Adages of Erasmus, University of Toronto 2001, 1 i 31, p. 32
Different versions of the container
Contents There were alternative accounts of jars or urns containing blessings and evils bestowed upon humanity in Greek myth, of which a very early account is related in Homer's Iliad:
In a major departure from Hesiod, the 6th-century BC Greek elegiac poet Theognis of Megara states that
The poem seems to hint at a myth in which the jar contained blessings rather than evils. It is confirmed in the new era by an Aesopic fable recorded by Babrius, in which the gods send the jar containing blessings to humans. Rather than a named female, it was a generic "foolish man" () who opened the jar out of curiosity and let them escape. Once the lid was replaced, only hope remained, "promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away." This aetiological version is numbered 312 in the Perry Index.
In the Renaissance, the story of the jar was revisited by two immensely influential writers, Andrea Alciato in his Emblemata (1534) and the Neo-Latin poet Gabriele Faerno in his collection of a hundred fables (, 1563). Alciato only alluded to the story while depicting the goddess Hope seated on a jar in which, she declares, "I alone stayed behind at home when evils fluttered all around, as the revered muse of the old poet [Hesiod] has told you". Faerno's short poem also addressed the origin of hope but in this case it is the remainder of the "universal blessings" () that have escaped: "Of all good things that mortals lack, / Hope in the soul alone stays back.", London 1743, Fable 94, p.216
An idea of the nature of the blessings lost is given in a Renaissance engraving by Giulio Bonasone, where the culprit is Pandora's husband, Epimetheus. He is shown holding the lid of a huge storage jar from which female representations of the Roman virtues are flying up into the air. They are identified by their names in Latin: security (), harmony (), fairness (), mercy (), freedom (), happiness (), peace (), worth (), and joy (). Hope () is delayed on the lip and holds aloft the flower that is her attribute.
Difficulties of interpretation In Hesiodic scholarship, the interpretive crux has endured:Though Pandora was not a subject of medieval art, Dora Panofsky and Erwin Panofsky examined the post-Renaissance mythos, see Bibliography Is the hope imprisoned within a jar full of evils to be considered a benefit for humanity, or a further curse? A number of mythology textbooks echo the sentiments of M. L. West: "[Hope's retention in the jar] is comforting, and we are to be thankful for this antidote to our present ills."West 1978, p. 169. Some scholars such as Mark Griffith, however, take the opposite view: "[Hope] seems to be a blessing withheld from men so that their life should be the more dreary and depressing."Griffith 1983:250. The interpretation hangs on two related questions: First, how is to be rendered, the Greek word usually translated as "hope"? Second, does the jar preserve for people, or keep it away from them?
As with most ancient Greek words, can be translated in a number of ways. A number of scholars prefer the neutral translation of "expectation". Classical authors use the word to mean "expectation of bad", as well as "expectation of good". Statistical analysis demonstrates that the latter sense appears five times more than the former in all of extant ancient Greek literature.Leinieks 1984, 1–4. Others hold the minority view that should be rendered "expectation of evil", arguing that that, if the jar is full of evils, then what is expectant hope – a blessing – doing among them? This would make the myth's tone somewhat optimistic: although mankind is troubled by all the evils in the world, at least it is spared the continual expectation of evil, which would make life unbearable.E.g., Verdenius 1985; Blumer 2001.
The answer to the first question largely depends on the answer to the second one: should the jar be interpreted as a prison, or a pantry?The prison/pantry terminology comes from Verdenius 1985 ad 96. The jar certainly serves as a prison for the evils that Pandora released – they only affect humanity once outside the jar. Some have argued that logic dictates, therefore, that the jar acts as a prison for as well, withholding it from the human race.Scholars holding this view (e.g., Walcot 1961, 250) point out that the jar is termed an "unbreakable" (in Greek: ) house. In Greek literature (e.g., Homer, and elsewhere in Hesiod), the word is applied to structures meant to sequester or otherwise restrain its contents. If means expectant hope, then the myth's tone is pessimistic: All the evils in the world were scattered from Pandora's jar, while the one potentially mitigating force, hope, remains locked securely inside.See Griffith 1984 above. A less pessimistic interpretation understands the myth to say: countless evils fled Pandora's jar and plague human existence; the hope that humanity might be able to master these evils remains imprisoned inside the jar. Life is not hopeless, but human beings are hopelessly human.Thus Athanassakis 1983 in his commentary ad Works 96.
It is also argued that hope was simply one of the evils in the jar, the false kind of hope, and was no good for humanity, since, later in the poem, Hesiod writes that hope is empty (498) and no good (500) and makes humanity lazy by taking away their industriousness, making them prone to evil.Cf. Jenifer Neils, in The Girl in the Pithos: Hesiod's Elpis, in "Periklean Athens and its Legacy. Problems and Perspectives" , pp. 40–41 especially.