Pandora: Inside Her Box
Who exactly is Pandora? Why is she deemed a "beautiful evil?" What can we learn from the plant and fire goddess that her counterpart Prometheus can't teach us?
There is so much we don’t know about the plant goddess of the Greek pantheon. Pandora, of All-Giver, has been in the dark since the ancient Greek days of Homer and Hesiod.
We know what she holds: Pandora’s Box. But we don’t know who she is and why she is so important when learning Greek mythology.
Consider the story of Adam and Eve from the Bible’s Book of Genesis. When Eve ate the apple, she unleashed sin to the world. The story of Pandora is of the same simple concept.
When Pandora opened her box, given to her by the god, Zeus, she unleashed misery to the world. Like Eve (or Lillith), her curiosity got the better of her and she had to find out why it was so important that she kept a precious gift secret.
Pandora, unlike many of the Greek spirits, is the very essence of human. It is human nature to be curious, or to have “the desire to know.”
Pandora, goddess of gifts, brings to our attention that what lies in the dark must be revealed. For how can we hold out hope if we never see the light?
When Pandora opens her box, she unleashes death and destruction to humanity - but much of what she captures is lost in so many retellings of Greek mythology. This part being that when Pandora opens that box, she unleashes the darkness but captures the light - she captures hope.
The question is will she share that hope with us?
Every time we need hope it is there waiting in the wings - waiting for us to open that little piece of light within to help us light without. I like to think of Pandora’s story as a metaphor - that when all hope is lost externally, the hope we capture within ourselves is enough to guide us to better days.
In Hesiod’s Theogony, Pandora is seen as a “beautiful evil” from a tribe of creatures’ humans call women. Why is she seen this way? Is it because of her box or is it for being what so many men back in those days feared; a confident, strong woman?
Why did Zeus give her a box that he knew would contain so much evil? Is it because he didn’t want the responsibility of having it in his grasp and if it were to ever be opened, he could blame it on the woman?
Why is it that so many stories on the first humans portray women as being misguided and albeit curiously dumb?
Why and how did this patriarchal mindset begin?
I can’t answer those questions. One reason is because I really don’t know. Another is because even if I were to ponder and theorize answers to those questions, you’d never get through this article.
The truth is, Pandora is a metaphor for how women came to be known in a male-dominated society. Though her curiosity got the better of her, it isn’t merely because she is a woman. It is because of human nature inside of her that grew when she was sent to Earth to be Epimetheus’ wife.
Pandora, to me, is a gift-giver of magickal things and knowing that she has all the light you’ll ever need inside her box tells me that we must overcome our human nature to truly experience the divine.
So, invoke Pandora when you need a little light in your life. She knows that among the darkness light is the most effective tool of all. May Pandora always stay by your side when all hope is lost.
Blessed be,
Magickal Michelle :)
P.S. If Pandora’s box is now holding light, why are we so afraid to open it?
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