My Myth

Prometheus, the fire and Pandora’s box When Zeus overthrew his father, Titan Cronus, and became the ruler of the world, he turned against the people. He wanted to destroy them all to make a fresh start. But the Titan Prometheus, who was his ally until then, thwarted his plans. Prometheus, whose name means ‘foresighted’, was the smartest of the Titans and offered people the gift of thought, while at the same time he taught them many arts, skills and sciences, such as astronomy, to use on their voyages. When at some point he wanted to give more food to people by deceiving the gods, Zeus got angry and deprived them of fire. Prometheus, however, that same night went to Olympus and stole it back. When Zeus found out he was furious and his revenge was terrible. He ordered the god of fire, Hephaestus, who was a blacksmith, to make a young woman out of clay, beautiful as an immortal goddess, but who would bring misery to the human race. All the gods endowed her with wonderful gifts. Athens gave her life, Apollo gave her musical talent and Hermes taught her cunning. The young woman had all the characteristics of a human being, that’s why they named her Pandora, which means bearing all gifts. Zeus then gave Pandora to Prometheus’ brother, Epimetheus, whose name means he who thinks afterwards. Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gift from Zeus, but Epimetheus was so enchanted by Pandora’s beauty that he accepted her as his wife. Epimetheus had hid in his house a sealed box which contained the evils, diseases, old age and sins of all mankind. The two Titans brothers have kept all these things away from people in order to protect them. However, cunning Pandora was burning with curiosity to find out what was inside that box, until one day she could not take it anymore and unsealed it. Then all the evils that torment people and make them unhappy were released into the world. Frightened, Pandora closed the box right away but only Hope was left inside, shouting at her to take her out. Pandora heard the faint, sad cry of Hope and freed her. So Hope came into the world to comfort people about the evils that came out of Pandora’s box.