The story of Pandora and her box, while it looks straightforward has deep meaning even today. The story, if you haven't heard it before is pretty simple. The Greek gods created this perfect woman, with everything she needed to succeed. All the Gods chipped in on her creation. Really a communal effort. Anyway, at some time later, Zeus gives Pandora as a gift to Prometheus' brother, punishing him for showing man the wonders of fire. At the same time Zeus gave her a magical jar, and ordered her to keep the jar sealed under any circumstance. Why he gave this woman such an important artifact is beyond me. But, as you may know, she couldn't resist the temptation, she needed to peer inside the forbidden box. And so with that, all the evils inside the jar were sent out and corrupted the world. Needless to say, Zeus was not very keen on this happening. And that's basically the gist of the story.
So what can we draw from this? An obvious connection could be drawn between this story and the story of Adam and Eve. Both are stories that take part in a religious doctrine, both are centered around the failure of humans to resist temptation, and both result in the degradation of mankind as a whole, due to the action of some silly woman. Apart from that this story speaks volumes to me in another way. Similar to Pandora, I can't always resist temptations or doing wrongs. If I believe that committing the act will benefit me in some way, I'm likely to go ahead and do it anyway. And just like the story from Genesis, this gives something to work towards. It tells me that maybe, I shouldnt be so self-centered, and be more aware of my actions and their effects on others. Especially when disobeying results in the eternal struggle of mankind, or the permanent presence of sin in our lives.
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