Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

The story of the Greek Gods is long and complicated.  It started with Chaos which separated into Gaea, Uranus, Erebus and Nyx (fear of the dark is nyctophobia).  Chaos and Gaea begot Oceanus, Ether, Aer (air), and the Nephelae (clouds).  That’s the easy part.  The rest is a little confusing.  It goes something like this:  Blah, blah, blah, Uranus, Titans/Cronus (Saturn), Cronus eating his offspring, Zeus gets saved by Rhea, Zeus goes to war with dad, Cronus, and the Titans, Zeus goes to war with the Giants, traps most of them in a special part of Hades (Tartarus) then reigns supreme on Olympus after taking all the power for himself when there was nobody strong enough left to oppose him.  I suggest actually reading a Mythology book to get the complete story because the details have become somewhat sketchy to me since I read about the origins of the Gods.  To make a long story short, we (mankind) were still in our infancy when Prometheus (a Titan) took up our cause (he created man), and Pandora (the first woman) was delivered to us from Olympus.      

The Story of us: Pandora’s Box      

Prometheus gave mankind fire by stealing it from the Sun Chariot (right from under Zeus’ nose) and delivered it to mankind for our comfort and progress.  He realized man, his creation, was suffering under the rule of petty Gods, and the theft of the fire was supposed to alleviate our troubles.  Zeus, however, was less than pleased at being duped by Prometheus.  Angered by Prometheus’s disregard for the chain of command, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold a beautiful woman from clay.  He determined that, through her, man would suffer.  The other gods, for their part, bestowed gifts on her.  The Graces made her fascinating, Athene gifted her with feminine wiles, and Aphrodite gave her beauty.  They named her Pandora (meaning The All-Gifted).  She was delivered by Hermes to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s younger brother.  Epimetheus had been forewarned by his brother not to accept gifts from the gods.  Pandora, though, was completely irresistible. Epimetheus could not resist, and he married her straight away.  The gods gave the new couple a wedding gift, a mysterious jar.  In the jar were all the blessings of the Gods for mankind. Epimetheus was assigned as the protector of the jar and was forbidden to open it; but Pandora, who had charm and beauty in abundance, lacked restraint.  Her curiosity easily got the best of her, and she plotted to open the jar when Epimetheus wasn’t looking.  That’s exactly what she did.  Upon opening the jar’s lid all the blessings of the Gods which were reserved for mankind flew away (they had wings).  She realized her stupidity at the last moment, and seeing Hope still in the jar (it had been lying on the bottom and was the last to take wing), she slammed the lid shut—thus preserving the last of the blessings, hope.      

Fire (Pyrrha), as an aside, was the first woman born to mortals (daughter of Pandora) and the only survivor (along with her husband) of the great flood.  Women, then, are born of fire.  Quite poetic!     

Note 1: For his transgression Zeus punished Prometheus by binding him to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver out of his body every day–sounds pleasant.      

Note 2:  In another version of the story the jar is filled with evils which escape onto mankind when the jar is opened.  But, I don’t like that version because it doesn’t make sense.  Why would Hope be in a jar filled with evils?  It should be tucked in with other blessings of course!  It makes more sense for Zeus to dangle blessings in front of disobedient mankind and then have them fly away so that man would see what could have been, rather than unleashing evil onto him as had already been the case before Prometheus’s interjection.       

Your Hope for the New Year:      

No matter how much you’ve messed up or not accomplished this past year there is always hope for the next.  We can accuse Pandora of letting our blessings fly away; but remember, at least she was swift enough to save hope.  Without it our lives would be meaningless and predetermined.  Each New Year would mean nothing and we’d never have a reason to make resolutions.  Therefore, when it’s time for you to make your resolutions, keep in mind that anything is possible, and give poor Pandora a break.      

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