The Pandora Myth & The Reality of Today (Teaser Part 1)
Pandora means in Greek: Πανδώρα, derived from πᾶν, pān, i.e. "all" and δῶρον, dōron, i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "the all-gifted" or "the all-giving".
In classical Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create her. So he did, using water and earth. The gods endowed her with many gifts: Athena clothed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave her musical ability, and Hermes gave her speech.
As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. 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".
Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum—is Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts" (up implying "from below" within the earth).
According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus. Pandora opens a jar containing death and many other evils which were released into the world. She hastened to close the container, but the whole contents had escaped except for one thing that lay at the bottom – Elpis (usually translated "hope", though it could also mean "expectation").
Etymology of the "box" : The original Greek word was 'pithos', which is a large jar, sometimes as large as a small person (Diogenes of Sinope was said to have once slept in one). It was used for storage of wine, oil, grain or other provisions, or, ritually, as a container for a human body for burying. In the case of Pandora, this jar may have been made of clay for use as storage as in the usual sense, or of metal, such as bronze, as an unbreakable prison.
The mistranslation of pithos is usually attributed to the 16th century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam who translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Erasmus rendered pithos as the Greek pyxis, meaning "box". The phrase "Pandora's box" has endured ever since. This misconception was further reinforced by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting Pandora.
And so as the story goes on, for millennium of ages, all sort of evils roamed the world. But the most distinct evil of them all with lasting effects is the unconscionable degradation of mother earth that will be born by many generations to come until such time when all collective remedies will bear fruit to regenerate and put new life into mother earth.
When Pandora opened the box, she let all the troubles come into the world except one - hope. The Greeks thought that hope was also very dangerous. But without hope, people were filled with despair.
Finally Pandora opened the box again and let out hope as well.
Symbolical as it is, “Hope”, an expression of “Expectations” in the face of reality has brought forth to all nations the ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS — Head of the Vatican and of the Universal Catholic Church together with the support of the ecumenical movement representing and participated by all religious denominations including governments globally.
The ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS is about the caring for of our common home — the Mother Earth and all the children of God.
Our current ecological footprint is equated to 1.5 Earths to produce all the renewable resources we use. The human population is expected to use the equivalent of 2 Earths of renewable resources per year by 2050. The misuse of science and technology, brings urgency to reduce our footprint.
Sourced from Vatican, Wikipedia, WikimediaCommons,
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