Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

The gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Otherwise a man might easily do work enough in a day to supply himself for a full year without working. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire; but the noble son of Iapetus stole it again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. Afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger: Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire—a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction. So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. He bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs; and Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. They obeyed. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid. Bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her; the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her; the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers; Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manner of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud-thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. He called this woman Pandora (“All-Endowed”), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift—a plague to men who eat bread. When he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus but to send it back lest it prove harmful to men. He took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood. For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates upon men—for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these, and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope (Elpis) remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander among men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So there is no way to escape the will of Zeus. This *Works and Days* unit is the classical source for the named Pandora, the cooperative adornment by many Olympians, Epimetheus’s ignored warning, and the jar from which evils escape while Hope alone remains. The *Theogony* shares the creation of the first woman as price of fire but lacks the jar and the name Pandora.