Prometheus Prometheus AND Pandora Summary - Protagoras PDF

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PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA SUMMARY A Brief Summary: It all starts when Prometheus steals fire from Zeus, king of the gods, to give to mankind. Apparently this isn't cool, and Zeus is so mad that he chains Prometheus up and inflicts on Man the worst thing he can think of: Woman. (Yeah, this was prefeminism.) The vengeful king of the gods makes Pandora (the lady) from the earth, and he gives her to Epimetheus, Prometheus's brother, as a bride. Doesn't sound too terrible, but just wait. Next up, Zeus gives Pandora a jar full of everything terrible that you can possibly imagine and tells her not to open it. So guess what she does? Yep, she opens it. And voilà, all kinds of terrible plagues are released onto mankind. The only thing that remains in the jar is—wait for it—Hope. So wait, is that a happy ending?

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Way back in the day, sometime around the beginning of everything, Prometheus steals fire from Zeus to give to mankind. This is not okay. And guess what? Zeus is majorly ticked off. He chains Prometheus to a rock for all eternity and has big nasty birds come eat his liver everyday. Each night, his liver grows back so the birds have a snack for the next day. Gross to the max. As if that isn't a big enough punishment, Zeus also decides to wreak some havoc on mankind. What is his devilish scheme you ask? What horrible thing does he inflict on men everywhere? Dun dun dun: a woman. (They didn't know about sexism back then.) Hephaestus is on the job, and he mixes some earth and water together to create the first woman, who is named Pandora. Lots of gods have a hand in making Pandora, each giving her a "gift": Athena teaches the woman how to weave; Aphrodite makes her beautiful; Hermes makes her skilled at lying and being deceitful. (Did we mention this was sexist?) Then they all get together and put her in a really hot outfit. So far so good. Zeus also gives Pandora a jar full of every kind of bad thing imaginable and warns her never to open it. (Worst wedding present ever, anyone?) Oh, P.S. All these so-called gifts are how Pandora got her name: it means "all endowed" or "all gifted." Next up, Zeus has Hermes take Pandora down to Epimetheus, Prometheus's brother, to offer her as a bride.

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Prometheus had warned Epimetheus to not take any presents from Zeus, but Epimetheus accepts Pandora anyway, fearing that if he doesn't, Zeus will do something bad to mankind. (Spoiler alert: that turns out to totally backfire.) Eventually, Pandora gets curious about the mysterious jar that Zeus gave her. She opens it, and every terrible thing you could possibly imagine streaks out of the jar and goes off to plague all of humanity. Oops. But not all hope is lost. Literally: the only thing that remains in the jar is Hope.

PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA Bedtime and campfire stories from way, way back in the day Check out our buddy Thomas Bulfinch's version of "Prometheus and Pandora" from The Age of Fable: THE CREATION of the world is a problem naturally fitted to excite the liveliest interest of man, its inhabitant. The ancient pagans, not having the information on the subject which we derive from the pages of Scripture, had their own way of telling the story, which is as follows: Before earth and sea and heaven were created, all things wore one aspect, to which we give the name of Chaos—a confused and shapeless mass, nothing but dead weight, in which, however, slumbered the seeds of things. Earth, sea, and air were all mixed up together; so the earth was not solid, the sea was not fluid, and the air was not transparent. God and Nature at last interposed, and put an end to this discord, separating earth from sea, and heaven from both. The fiery part, being the lightest, sprang up, and formed the skies; the air was next in weight and place. The earth, being heavier, sank below; and the water took the lowest place, and buoyed up the earth. Here some god—it is not known which—gave his good offices in arranging and disposing the earth. He appointed rivers and bays their places, raised mountains, scooped out valleys, distributed woods, fountains, fertile fields, and stony plains. The air being cleared, the stars began to appear, fishes took possession of the sea, birds of the air, and four-footed beasts of the land. But a nobler animal was wanted, and Man was made. It is not known whether the creator made him of divine materials, or whether in the earth, so lately separated from heaven, there lurked still some heavenly seeds. Prometheus took some of this earth, and kneading it up with water, made man in the image of the gods. He gave him an upright stature, so that while all other animals turn their faces downward, and look to the earth, he raises his to heaven, and gazes on the stars. Prometheus was one of the Titans, a gigantic race, who inhabited the earth before the creation of man. To him and his brother Epimetheus was committed the office of making man, and providing him and all other animals with the faculties necessary for their preservation. Epimetheus undertook to do this, and Prometheus was to overlook his work, when it was done. Epimetheus accordingly proceeded to bestow upon the different animals the various gifts of courage, strength, swiftness, sagacity; wings to one, claws to another, a shelly covering to a third, etc. But when man came to be provided for, who was to be superior to all other animals, Epimetheus had been so

prodigal of his resources that he had nothing left to bestow upon him. In his perplexity he resorted to his brother Prometheus, who, with the aid of Minerva, went up to heaven, and lighted his torch at the chariot of the sun, and brought down fire to man. With this gift man was more than a match for all other animals. It enabled him to make weapons wherewith to subdue them; tools with which to cultivate the earth; to warm his dwelling, so as to be comparatively independent of climate; and finally to introduce the arts and to coin money, the means of trade and commerce. Woman was not yet made. The story (absurd enough!) is that Jupiter made her, and sent her to Prometheus and his brother, to punish them for their presumption in stealing fire from heaven; and man, for accepting the gift. The first woman was named Pandora. She was made in heaven, every god contributing something to perfect her. Venus gave her beauty, Mercury persuasion, Apollo music, etc. Thus equipped, she was conveyed to earth, and presented to Epimetheus, who gladly accepted her, though cautioned by his brother to beware of Jupiter and his gifts. Epimetheus had in his house a jar, in which were kept certain noxious articles, for which, in fitting man for his new abode, he had had no occasion. Pandora was seized with an eager curiosity to know what this jar contained; and one day she slipped off the cover and looked in. Forthwith there escaped a multitude of plagues for hapless man,—such as gout, rheumatism, and colic for his body, and envy, spite, and revenge for his mind,—and scattered themselves far and wide. Pandora hastened to replace the lid! but, alas! the whole contents of the jar had escaped, one thing only excepted, which lay at the bottom, and that was hope. So we see at this day, whatever evils are abroad, hope never entirely leaves us; and while we have that, no amount of other ills can make us completely wretched. Another story is that Pandora was sent in good faith, by Jupiter, to bless man; that she was furnished with a box, containing her marriage presents, into which every god had put some blessing. She opened the box incautiously, and the blessings all escaped, hope only excepted. This story seems more probable than the former; for how could hope, so precious a jewel as it is, have been kept in a jar full of all manner of evils, as in the former statement?

THEMES WOMEN AND FEMININITY IN PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA Hesiod must have had some nasty experiences with women, don't you think? In the myth of Prometheus and Pandora, Pandora sure doesn't get the royal treatment. Yes, she's the first woman, but she's also described as being full of deceit, trickery, and cunning. And as if that weren't enough, she then opens a jar that releases horrifying terribleness onto the world. Since Pandora is the first woman, we don't think it's too much of a leap to say that she was meant to represent all women. So are the Greeks saying that the worst blight ever inflicted on the male of the species was the female? Could be. And some

people think that Hesiod's version of this story might represent a shift to patriarchy (male domination) in Greek society. Whatever the case, there's no doubt that this story is full of blatantly anti-women themes. We know we're judging it from a 21st-century standpoint, but come on, dude.

SUFFERING IN PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA At its core, the myth of Prometheus and Pandora is an attempt to explain how suffering first entered the world. It just goes to show you that people have been struggling with this question forever. Pretty much all the bad stuff that happens now happened way back in the day, too. People suffer from fear, depression, and anxiety. They die from terrible diseases. They're abducted by aliens. The point is that suffering has always been a part of the human experience on Earth. Not so uplifting, but don't worry. The story does have a silver lining: despite all the badness we have to put up with on this planet, the one thing they can't take away from us is hope.

CHARACTERS PROMETHEUS Talk about a sacrifice. When Prometheus defies his former ally, Zeus, by giving fire to man, he knowingly submits himself to years and years of awful torture. And come on, would you put up with being tied to a rock and having your insides pecked out by birds on a daily basis if it meant the betterment of all humanity? We, for one, would have to think about it. Really hard.

The Catalyst What role does Prometheus really play in this story, though? It's Pandora who screws everything up by opening the jar, right? But the thing about Greek mythology is that everything has an origin story. And while the myth of Prometheus and Pandora is the origin of all suffering ever (thanks!), Prometheus's fire scheme is the origin of that origin. Those Greeks loved them some beginnings.

The Titan We think Prometheus deserves his shot in the spotlight, so we're here to give you all the deets on this dude. Humans are kind of indebted to him, so the least we could do was Shmoop him up a little. Check out everything (and then some) in our guide to all things Prometheus.

PANDORA Pandora has the honor of being the first woman on earth. And boy does she gum up the works. By opening the forbidden jar, she releases every bad thing ever onto mankind, and gives us what we now know as horrible suffering. Thanks, Pandy!

Who's to Blame Of course, can you really blame her? After all, she was designed by Zeus to do this very thing; she doesn't really have a choice in the matter. Reading the myth the 21st century, we might say "he just wanted to blame a woman, that misogynistic pig!" But you have to remember, feminism wasn't around back then, so the Greeks probably weren't too worked up about it. Also, when you call Zeus a misogynistic pig, he gets kind of angry. Whatever the case, Pandora is the one who opens that box, so she's the one we associate with the disaster, even to this day. If you ever hear someone say "you've really opened a Pandora's box with that one," you know you've messed up. Just keep your fingers crossed that there's a little hope left for you, too.

Look Familiar? Some nerdy folks in mythology departments think that the version of Pandora in this story is actually a distortion of an even earlier myth, in which she was an all-giving earth goddess. That would account for the negative portrayal of Pandora in this version—it might just be a symptom of growing male oppressiveness in Greek society. If the story sounds familiar and you haven't heard this earth-goddess version, you might want to pick up your copy of the Bible. Back in Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve sounds pretty similar… don't you think? For more on this first-ever lady, check out Shmoop's guide to Pandora.

ZEUS The king of the gods comes off as kind of a jerk in this myth. What's new, right? When Prometheus helps mankind by giving him fire, Zeus not only dooms Prometheus to be horribly tortured, but he also creates Pandora to release all kinds of badness on humanity. Yo, Zeus, is it really that bad for mankind to have fire? Was all that really necessary? To play devil's advocate, though, human beings have done an awful lot of bad stuff with fire over the years: weapons, war, burning restaurants down on WB sitcoms. So, who knows? Maybe Prometheus should've listened to what Zeus had to say.

The myth of Prometheus and Pandora is only one of the many, many stories Zeus gets his hands on. For more on this Greek bigwig, check out Shmoop's guide to all things Zeus....