BOOK
manifestly implied by the story of Pandora as the overreaching of
Zeus is patent in the institutional myth of the sacrifices. Prometheus
is the wise and cautious counsellor, whose advice, if followed, will
assuredly mitigate an evil or prevent a catastrophe. As such, he had
bidden men, and more especially his brother Epimetheus, to be on
their guard against any gifts which might be offered to them by Zeus,
as their acceptance would be followed only by pain and misery. But
it was impossible thus to defeat the schemes of Zeus or avert the doom
of man. No sooner had Zeus been tricked in the matter of the
sacrificial victims than he bade the fire-god Hephaistos mould of clay
the figure of a maiden,^ into which Athene the dawn-goddess breathed
the breath of life, clothing her with silver raiment, while Hermes gave
her the mind of a dog, to cozen, deceive, and ruin those with whom
she might come in contact. The maiden, thus arrayed, is brought to
Epimetheus, and presented to him under the name Pandora, the gift
of all the gods.^ Thus was woman brought to man ; and the poet of
the Theogony only adds that through woman man was speedily plunged
into woe irremediable. The author of the Works and Days gives the
reasons in detail. In the keeping of Epimetheus was a fatal jar,
whose cover could not be lifted without grievous consequences to
mankind. Pandora of course raises the lid, and a thousand evils are
let loose. Thus far men had been plagued by no diseases : now the
air was filled with the seeds of sickness which everywhere produced
their baneful fruit ; and the only possible alleviation of their woe was
rendered impossible by the shutting up of Hope, which alone remained
a prisoner within the cask when Pandora in her terror hastily replaced
the cover.^ Here manifestly we have an account of the origin of evil
' IntheFinnishepicofWainamoinen, lid is very doubtful, while the whole the smith is Ilmarinen, who makes, not legend assuredly represents Zeus as in- for others, but for himself, a wife of gold exorably hostile to men, and hence as and silver whom he brings to life after most unlikely to interfere in their be- vast trouble. He finds, however, that half. In Grote's opinion the point is that side of his body which has touched one which does not admit of question, the golden Bride is very cold in the Pandora, he says, does not in Hesiod morning. Hence he is willing to turn "bring with her the cask. . . . The her over to Wainamoinen, who, not case is analogous to that of the closed much relishing the gift, advises him to bag of unfavourable winds which /Eolus take it to some place where gold is in gives into the hands of Odysseus, and more request. which the guilty companions of the
- In another and a more probable latter force open, to the entire ruin of
tradition Pandora is an epithet of Gaia, his hopes. . . . The diseases and evils the bountiful earth, lavish of her gifts are inoperative so long as they remain to all her children: it would thus shut u]i in the cask: the same mischief- answer to the phrase Swraip idwv. making which lets them out to their ^ The opinion that Hope was left a calamitous work takes care that Hope prisoner out of mercy to men seems un- shall still continue a powerless prisoner tenable. The genuineness of the line in the inside." — //is/. Gr. i. 104; in which Zeus bids Pandora replace the Tylor, Frimitive Culture, i. 319.