PANDORA: HER TRUE STORY, Stonehenge, Investigation on Pandora Options

[Psyche]

PANDORA: HER TRUE STORY

To the Rescue !

Feminists are suffering the wear and tear, and consequent discredit, of tackling complex social issues with practical arguments that don't get them anywhere. It's high time to take a breather from crude reality. Yes, a holiday in the Land of Myth ! To state my case for Pandora, the original "wronged woman", I've borrowed from Lewis Carroll's whimsical Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass kind of logic.

Lewis Carroll, aka the Reverend Charles Dodgson, would probably have preferred to be born female. Hence his obsession with little girls, whom he photographed in various stages of undress, one of whom served as his intellectual model for Alice. I don't believe that Carroll's interest in prepubescent girls was predominantly perverse, as some people affirm. On the contrary, his fascination allowed him to see through a female child's eyes, and I think Alice's non-plussed world view will help us women to understand what we're up against. And for that we have to go back to the origins and take a looking-glass view of history and myth.

Neither do I expect this strategic turnabout will wrap up the case for women's rights at a single stroke. My objective is to cast light on the root of the problem: we've been told an upside-down tale of reality from the very onset. That won't be easy to unravel, since myth and reality are strongly intertwined.

Lovely Pandora, sadly enough, is maliciously invoked when the opportunity arises, but few people really know or care who she actually was. Little girls have traditionally been offered innocent sounding tales of Pandora's wrong-doings, tucked inside storybooks.
A bit like the Biblical Eve. Women have, in actual fact, been subtly and persistently blamed for all the ills of the world since the beginning of time, in the form of "harmless" myth. If I'm wrong, shoot me now !

The Crime and the Riddle: Who Stole the Box?

Perhaps only a few myths are so superficially handled and little understood as Pandora's. Traditionally, Pandora is "that woman":
beautiful Evil personified, who opens the forbidden box from which horrendous plagues and other miseries overflow into the world. Only Hope remains trapped - or saved - in the box. Pandora's box is proverbial, but... it never even existed !

The Trial: Witnesses For the Prosecution Unmasked

I'll start with the box and later turn my attention to Pandora herself.
Thanks to a series of translations by biased male "authorities", the original Greek word pythos - Lt. dolium - was replaced by pyxis, so that a heavy earthernware vessel for preserving wine or oil eventually became known as a handy glass or phial, and finally as a plain box. The original Greek vessels had frequently served as convenient receptacles for concealing cadavers or as a hiding-place for the living ! They were very ample and had a good, strong lid.

It's often been taken for granted that the earthernware pot was part of the household goods of Epimetheus, the wimp who was picked, in second place, to be Pandora's husband. The Sixteenth Century Dutch scholar Erasmus appears to affirm - due to a grammatical ambigüity - that it was Epimetheus not Pandora who committed the dire act of opening the dubious receptacle. Yet Erasmus was also responsible for substituting "box" for earthernware pot due to a fusion of Pandora with Psyche, a theme that was picked up by Renaissance painters.

("I see you're admiring my little box", the Knight said in a friendly tone. "It's my own invention". Precisely: Lewis Carroll saw through men's perfidious ways.)

Pandora-Psyche: Cover-ups and Smoke Screens

Psyche, being the personification of Soul, had a rather better reputation in Greek mythology than Pandora. She was so beautiful that many mistook her for Aphrodite (Roman: Venus), the Goddess of Love. The Romans also muddled up Greek myths, by the way. Aphrodite, enraged by the competition, bid her son Eros (Roman: Cupid) trick Psyche into falling in love with a reptilian monster. It became a triangular affair, but the important issue is that poor Psyche, who began to suffer from depression, phobias and low self-esteem, besides being suicidal and a pathological liar, really did open a forbidden box! The box had been entrusted to her by Aphrodite on a journey to the Underworld to visit Persephone.

It seems that Aphrodite, stressed out from childcaring and looking haggard, had asked Persephone, the gorgeous Queen of Hades, to deposit some of her own beauty in a special box, so that Aphrodite could get herself a face-lift. Psyche, a simple girl but quite intuitive, peeped inside. She immediately fainted, but was saved by her erstwhile lover Eros, who flew her up to Mt. Olympus and eventually capitulated by marrying her. She was made immortal by Zeus and this Father of Gods and men gave Eros a potion of divine nectar to keep him from forever roving. At least, that's what the Romans said. This may sound irrelevant as regards Pandora, but it's not, so I have to go back a step to tell you what happened in Hades.

"Curiouser and Curiouser"

"Curiouser and curiouser!" observed Psyche, forgetting her Greek, when she was told that people who reached the thick, foul-smelling River Styx, in order to cross over into the Underworld had to give Charon, the rascally boatman, the exact amount of change in coins for the right to climb into his patched craft.  A poor man on the point of death (or the merely absent-minded) was expected to have his passage fee ready to get there on time ! The god Avarice lived thereabouts, so Charon and his great father Pluto, King of Hades, never did anything for nothing ! The alternative was to wander disconsolately for ever this side of the Styx.

Hades, mind you, was not all that bad compared to Christian Hell Fire, so people went there tamely enough and, Psyche supposed, kept coins handy at all times. The Greeks were hardly dead in Hades, rather they became shades, who in a dim sort of way could even rain punishments on the living. Quite a few visitors were received in Hades on missions that entailed many dangers and challenges that were ultimately redemptive. Mt. Olympus was the home of gods not people, so Psyche's adventures down the Hell-hole were probably routine trainee practise, in that she eventually made it to the Board of Sub-Directors, although I'm the first person to have remarked on this.

The Mock-up: A Lesson in Latin

Anyway, the philosopher Erasmus, a Latin scholar but probably weak on Greek - the first direct translations from Greek manuscripts were just coming in -, was misled to believe that Psyche and her box were somehow related to Pandora, just as Jupiter is Roman for Zeus, Neptune for Poseidon, and so on. The fact is that he got the details muddled, so that famous painters represented Pandora-Psyche in the most extraordinary fashion, quite often with a crow clinging to the edge of the box. At some time during her wanderings, Psyche had also carried a glass vessel to drink water from a sparkling river. That explains why some artists preferred a phial or glass. But, for reasons unknown, Hope was briefly represented by a crow. In early Christian symbolism, it is an allegory of solitude. A penitent Pandora, with her box and crow, held out Hope for humanity !

("It's no business of mine", Psyche was heard to declare, just as Alice feigned ignorance when confronted with upside-down playing cards. After all, Pandora's myth was becoming more like a wobbly castle built of cards, with as little heart in it as in the Red Queen).

Pandora-Eve: Advice from Pillars of the Faith

To make matters worse, the Church Fathers also tinkered with the fable. Their saintly intention of corroborating the doctrine of Original Sin by means of a classical parallel - even though it meant adapting a "pagan" fable to Christian truth - led to an inevitable association with Eve. The artist Rosso Fiorentino, influenced by the Church's teaching, depicted Pandora carelessly freeing The Seven Deadly Sins. He imagined them as ghastly human figures of natural proportions. Fiorentino included the crow in his striking drawing; it hangs in the École-des-Beaux-Arts, in Paris.

The unfortunate comparison with Eve, who had a very bad public image owing to the guilt complexes of famous repentant sinners such as St. Augustine, added fuel to the frightfully misogynist outlook of the Church in those days. Both celibacy and virginity were being promoted as the ideal state in which to serve God, and even marriage among ordinary folks relegated them to a sort of second-class moral status. Woman the "evil temptress" received the brunt of this prejudice, needless to say. Pandora was the "Eve" of mythology.

Crossing the Line: Looking Eastward

It's also a seldom mentioned fact that celibacy, along with Sunday as the day of worship (*), was not handed down from Judaism, which looked upon both as gentile, i.e., pagan, barbarian practices. Marriage was considered essential for male Jews by the age of 28 years; Jesus's apostles were all married. Whenever Jews were being persecuted in the Middle Ages, one of the accusations hurled at them was that they were a lusty, sensuous race. (**)

Hostility to sexual pleasure is a Gnostic-Stoic legacy, rooted in Old Persian practises. Manecheism even taught that procreation is evil, along with the body and all material things, because it helped perpetuate the human race and thus the battle between Good and Evil forces.

Thus influenced, Origen, the most important theologian of the early Greek Christian Church, had himself castrated at the age of 18 in a quest for perfection, invoking Christians who had done so before him. Too late, he lamented his error in interpreting the Scriptures, but he still saw celibacy as morally superior in the eyes of God. Male castration may not have become an epidemic, but it was indeed endemic under the Roman Empire, since an edict was issued which decreed death to whosoever underwent or promoted it.

(*)  Early Christians chose Sun-day from Mithraism, a powerful Persian religion whose sun-god was named Mithra. Mithraism flourished among the Roman Legions scattered over large areas of the Empire, although the Romans substituted their god Sol (Greek: Apollo), for Mithra. Judaism, of course, observed the Sabbath Day, as did Jesus and the Apostles.
(**) See "Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven", by German theologian Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Penguin, N.Y., 1991.

The Pool of Tears

So now we have "Pandora the First Woman", a propagator of Evil in all its manifestations, including Original Sin insofar as the Augustinian interpretation of it is concerned: an emphatically sexual one. Pandora hasn't even been credited with humankind's hunger after knowledge of good and evil; she can't be, since she was not graced with the power of discernment and, having no soul, lacked free will. If this giant-sized effigy - remember that she was to marry the Titan Prometheus - had been capable of weeping, she would no doubt be punished by drowning in a pool of her own tears.

(Alice soon found out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high. "I wish I hadn't cried so much!" she thought, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. "I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears!")

A Cunning Conspiracy

We've already seen that Pandora achieved notoriety due to an attribute that was neither a box nor belonged to her. Generally speaking, the motive for opening the box is a bit fuzzy. Most authors insinuate Pandora's curiosity, but there was never any formal prohibition to open it, as in Genesis when God is quite clear about the forbidden tree. On the contrary, as we shall now see, it was intended that Pandora should do so. A set-up, in fact. Isn't it normal to examine one's wedding presents? To add to the confusion, some researchers believe that the box contained all the good things imaginable; being winged, they flew back to Mt. Olympus.

The Real Evidence: A Set of Verses

Hesiod claims that Pandora strewed calamity and misery among mortals. He states that Hope clung to the inner borders of the jar. It was hastily covered, too late to prevent disaster. But, under the circunstances, Hesiod should have said whether he viewed Hope as something good, bad or indifferent. With Hope stuck inside the vessel, the inevitable conclusion is that Pandora's act was totally catastrophic, since she left the world full of misery and without hope. Nevertheless, some people construe that she saved Hope for humankind.

Hesiod's version of the myth, contained in "Works and Days" and a brief passage of "Theogony", has defied exegetes' genius for over two thousand years. Let the reader judge:

"It's My Own Invention"

"And I, Zeus, shall give to men, in place of Fire (stolen from Mt. Olympus by the Titan Prometheus as a gift to mankind), an evil which they will receive joyfully and thereby embrace their own misfortune." Thus spoke the Father of Gods and of men, bursting into gleeful laughter. Whereupon he ordered the illustrious Hephaestus (Lt. Vulcan) to mix water and earth and to mold from the mud a beautiful damsel similar to the immortal goddesses, to whom he, Zeus, would give human nature in her flesh and in her voice.

By order of Zeus, other Olympian divinities graced the mud effigy with radiancy and marvellous talents. They clothed it in sumptuous gowns, crowned it with flowers and placed a golden crown upon its head. But they also inspired the wondrous female "robot" with flattery, perfidy and lies with which to confound men. And they named her Pandora.

Zeus topped up a large earthernware jar with horrors and sent it as a wedding present, since Prometheus was meant to marry the evil robot as punishment for having stolen Fire for men. Sage Prometheus mistrusted Zeus and refused the gift and the marriage offer, but his brother Epimetheus - which means "dim witted" or "slow in the uptake" - was not so prudent. In spite of Prometheus's warnings, he took Pandora for a wife. It is widely believed that the silly man opened the giant vessel himself and then blamed Pandora.

(That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet", said the King of Hearts, rubbing his hands; "so now let the jury....", but the jury all wrote down that there wasn't an atom of meaning in it.)

The Authenticity of the Verses

Hesiod's verses are probably not in his handwriting since in that period oral traditions were more common. He may not even be the author of "Theogony", say some authorities. The story goes that a king awarded him first prize in a poetry competition, in which the finalists were Hesiod and Homer, no less. But the truth is that Hesiod lived at least a century after Homer, who in turn may have been "several narrators", one of whom was indeed the blind homeric poet. Didactic poetry was in fashion then, so Homer lost out with his epic style, post mortem.

("Please your Majesty",  the Knave said when taken prisoner for calumny, "I didn't write them, and they can't prove that I did: there's no name signed at the end."
"If you didn't sign them", said the King of Hearts, "that only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man."
"That proves his guilt, of course", said the Queen: "so, off with his head !")

Witness for the Defence

Robert Graves claims that Prometheus, the real Father of Mortals, with the best of intentions enclosed in the vessel evils such as Death, Old Age, Plagues, Madness, Vice and Wicked Passions. According to this version, wily Hope dissuaded mortals from collective suicide when the calamity occurred. Prometheus, one of the seven Titans, had already molded the first humans out of clay. He had taught them astronomy, mathematics, medicine, navigation and agriculture, guided by Pallas Athena, Goddess of Arts and Wisdom, among other things. Zeus, jealous of the power and talent of Man, would have liked to annihilate humankind, especially after the Fire incident, but Prometheus talked him out of it. Zeus's first revenge was a catastrophic deluge which caused a Great Flood. A few mortals were saved because they built themselves an arc similar to Noah's.

The Verdict Before the Sentence

It's quite apparent that the initial perpetrator of the whole dismal affair was Zeus, an angry, vengeful god after the O.T. tradition. Pandora was merely a fraudulent robotic sculpture in female form, built of cheap mud and programmed to carry out the designs of her creator. Lacking free will, she was incapable of discerning good from evil. She had no soul, being made "in the image" of the gods, but with a human voice and body. This "beautiful calamity" is one of the earliest male fantasies on record and does not merit further study. I just wanted to get things into perspecive, and leave the sentence till after the verdict.

("No, no!", said the Queen. "Sentence first - verdict afterwards." But as the King said to the White Rabbit during The Trial: "Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to The End: then stop.")

By Psyche.

Sources:

Dora & Erwin Panofsky, "Pandora's Box", Pantheon, London, 1975.
Hesiod, "Theogony", "Works and Days".
Lewis Carroll, "The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll", Chancellor, London, 1982.
Michael Grant, "Myths of the Greeks and Romans", Mentor, N.Y., 1962.
Robert Graves, "Greek Myths", Penguin, London, 1981.
Uta Ranke-Heinemann, "Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven", Penguin, 1991.

The sub-titles for this "unauthorized biography" have either been selected among the names of chapters of Lewis Carroll's stories, or are modified quotes from L.C.'s texts.
A Cunning Conspiracy, Crossing the Line, Looking Eastward: from Sylvie and Bruno.
To the Rescue !: from Sylvie and Bruno, Concluded.
A Lesson in Latin: from Three Sunsets and Other Poems.

The quotes between brackets, at the end of some paragraphs,  belong to Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

[Guest_Tao_*]

Uh, it's too late to change it, Sylvia, not while the reader is present.

But seriously, will feedback soon, once I obsorb.

David

[Guest_Tao_*]

Hi Psyche,

If I'm wrong, shoot me now ! – no passion for this subject, is there? Well, you sure are loaded on mythology!

Disclaimer: Before I even respond to this piece, let me just state now, for the record, unequivocally, that I hold no ill will toward Pandora, Psyche (the original and subsequent), or any other member of the group known as the “females” of my species.

I gather you’re reviewing Lewis Carroll's “Alice Through the Looking Glass?” Is that why there are references and quotes to the book in parentheses at the end of most sections?

First, a couple of small, non-issues:

Circunstances – I mentioned in your other poem that there was a typo, thought it was this word, but apparently it’s spelled differently in English and American – circumstances. So, never mind.

In the last paragraph of The Mock-up: A Lesson in Latin, (It's no business of mine", is missing a quote. That’s all I could find wrong.

Now on to the good stuff.

Though claimed as the message of God and teachings of his Son, the Bible was written by men after all! Men in a patriarchic society no less. I read somewhere too that Eve might have been borrowed from the Greek Pandora. Another little-known trivia is that in Christianity there was another woman even before Eve! And what happened between she and Adam in a way caused the mistrust Adam had for Eve. I never knew.

"And I, Zeus, shall give to men, in place of Fire (stolen from Mt. Olympus by the Titan Prometheus as a gift to mankind), an evil which they will receive joyfully and thereby embrace their own misfortune." – I quoted this same passage on my website, but in a different context. Striking how Greek mythology and Christianity both had, or were interpreted to have, this episode  – blame it on the woman!

But how did Pandora come about? Answer? Boys – boys and their silly games. Prometheus had been around, even before Zeus. Zeus committed patricide and took power from his father, justified apparently as his father had tried to eat him earlier to prevent the prophecy that Zeus would be the king of the gods from coming true. Prometheus was actually Zeus’ comrade in that “Titanic” war.

After Zeus secured court in Mt. Olympus, as you said, they had nothing better to do, so Prometheus did a little effigy making of his own and created from mud - us, the mortals. But it wasn’t good enough that he’d made himself pets, he had to build us a better “doghouse” by stealing Zeus’ fire for us in those dark, cold caves. This fire was more than central heating. It symbolized the gift of mind – industry and technology. Look at us mortals now…yeah, right.

Zeus knew what Prometheus was up to, but the theft took place regardless. Zeus’ pride was badly bruised, and he couldn’t have that. And so, Pandora was created as the bait for “getting evenness.” As you said, Pro-metheus, as in forethought, saw through the ticking “time bomb” pottery and avoided it. Epi-metheus, as in hindsight, was not so quick. Pandora’s box caused collateral damage instead. Zeus didn’t let him off that easily, but that’s another story.

So, was it a conspiracy of the millenniums, to tarnish women? The fact that it came to be known as Pandora’s box, not Zeus’ or Epimetheus’ box does sound fishy. Don’t know, but I agree with you on this: later interpreters, like we, might have done more harm to these myths then they originally did. Let’s not even mention Oedipus and Electra. Oh mine! And then there's , talk about bad press!

David

[Guest_Cailean_*]

Tao's other handle is linked with "Prometheus" so I fully expected him to wax lyrical about his favourite Titan :)

However, enjoyed this piece: very well set out and enjoyable to read, and one that I firmly believe. You may also be interested in hearing Serendipity's rant in Dogma, the movie by Kevin Smith, which brings up some interesting points.

I've been a firm feminist from day one, and you've changed my thoughts on Lewis Carroll too - what you say makes sense indeed, relating to his mindset. Another Dogma reference, the beginning of it starts with an analysis of the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter", citing it as an indictment of organized religion.

Spotted a typo: liar, not lier :)

Most edifying! Thanks :)

Cailean.

[Guest_Tao_*]

Hi Cailean and Psyche,

Wax lyrical? God, hope I didn't! More like wax on, wax off!

Dogma - great movie, fun for the intellectuals, but I doubt the Church took it so well. Loved George Carlin's cardinal character.

David

[Psyche]

Uh, it's too late to change it, Sylvia, not while the reader is present.

But seriously, will feedback soon, once I obsorb.

David

Ooooh.... Tao !! You're a Peeping Tom !  :read:
Caught ya !!  :dance:
Psyche  :wave:

[Psyche]

Hi Tao !! Thank u so much for reading my piece ! You've been one step ahead of me all the time, since it's taken me four trips to the cybercafé
to get all this posted...  :)  

"Disclaimer: Before I even respond to this piece, let me just state now, for the record, unequivocally, that I hold no ill will toward Pandora, Psyche (the original and subsequent), or any other member of the group known as the “females” of my species."

I ADORE your disclaimer !! Ha ha.... that's what you wonderful men all say.... How did it all happen then, may I ask?    "The female of "my" species"... you've quoted a well-known mysoginist, no less than Rudyard Kipling....  :pharoah2    Just joking, Tao, I know u LOVE us gals...

Seriously, now, I've identified each of my quotes or sources at the end of this piece. I've been a Lewis Carroll freak since childhood, when I read his books about 7 times 7... not much to do in Patagonia come night time ! I also truly believe we live in a topsy-turvy world that defies all logic save L.C.'s, and then some....

"I read somewhere too that Eve might have been borrowed from the Greek Pandora. Another little-known trivia is that in Christianity there was another woman even before Eve! And what happened between she and Adam in a way caused the mistrust Adam had for Eve. I never knew."

I don't know about Adam's past, but it's a fact that God himself was helped by Wisdom, a woman, in the Creation of the World. Wisdom is clearly personified as female in the O.T., but later was transformed into Logos or Word, terms eventually applied to Jesus. I'll find you the exact phrases in the O.T. that I refer to (I'm at the cybercafé, no Bibles around...).

Thank u so much for pointing out typos... I have to go home now, will acknowledge rest of your comments asap.
Hugs,
Psyche  

[Psyche]

Tao's other handle is linked with "Prometheus" so I fully expected him to wax lyrical about his favourite Titan :)

However, enjoyed this piece: very well set out and enjoyable to read, and one that I firmly believe. You may also be interested in hearing Serendipity's rant in Dogma, the movie by Kevin Smith, which brings up some interesting points.

I've been a firm feminist from day one, and you've changed my thoughts on Lewis Carroll too - what you say makes sense indeed, relating to his mindset. Another Dogma reference, the beginning of it starts with an analysis of the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter", citing it as an indictment of organized religion.

Spotted a typo: liar, not lier :)

Most edifying! Thanks :)

Cailean.

Hi Cailean !
At last, someone else from the Southern Hemisphere !!
Thank u so much for your comments, as I've already explained to Tao, I have to rush home, as I'm at a cybercafé... will return asap to re-read your words. Please forgive !    :)
Best, Psyche  

[Psyche]

Hi David, again !
Can only read bits at a time... Yes, reality and myth both suck, what a mess gods and/or human beings make of the world. I call it "non-change".
By the way, David, I looked up Wisdom in the Bible, and it turns out that in my Spanish bible she is decidedly feminine, since the Spanish article specifies gender, as in French, etc. To make matters more complicated, the King James Bible calls the chapter "Proverbs" instead of "Sabiduría". All the same, if you read Proverbs 8 you'll find the "she" I'm referring to, and further on you can read, in Proverbs 22.23.24, etc., how Wisdom was with God before Creation, in the "everlasting", and was "possessed" by Him. And so on.
Well, anyway, as far as male conspiracies are concerned, I have all the lowdown on Pallas Athena as well, on how Zeus swallowed her mother Methis, to steal her intelligence. But that's another story, and so is the story of Medea, another poor woman who has been smeared with the nastiest of characters, when the truth is that she actually went mad because Jason took away her 3 children and forbade her access to them, having married somebody else who was more suited politically. And Jason gets all the glory, with his argonauts, whom Medea accompanied and supported all along !!
ENOUGH !!! Me, a feminist?!  
Hugs and thanks again, Tao !!
Psyche    

[Guest_Tao_*]

Hi Psyche,

Rudyard Kipling was a mysoginist? I didn't know that. Shall I make another disclaimer for my disclaimer? Funny, my business degree, if nothing else, taught me how to write disclaimers.

You know too much about the Greeks as well as the Bible! Well, okay, bring it on then. We can all use some edifying.

That picture of the Patagonian lagoon was magnificent. Keeper! :pharoah2

David