Pandora, the Beautiful Evil: the Coming of Evil to Light in Ancient Greek world
“There are two urns that stand on the door-sill of Zeus. They are unlike
for the gifts they bestow: an urn of evils, an urn of blessings.
If Zeus who delights in thunder mingles these and bestows them
on man, he shifts, and moves now in evil, again in good fortune.
But when Zeus bestows from the urn of sorrows, he makes a failure
of man, and the evil hunger drives him over the shining
earth, and he wanders respected neither of gods nor mortals”
(Homer, Iliad, 24.527-33. Translation by R. Lattimore)
By these words the Greek hero Achilles tries to console the old Trojan king, Priam, for having lost his dear son: once Priam prospered, once he was lord in his wealth and numerous children. But, no one can hope to receive a lot of pure good; at best he may hope to have some good mixed with the inevitable evil.
Not only do these words by Homer’s epitomize the archaic Greek view of human life as a mixture of good things and evils, but also, and more importantly, they point out two peculiar conceptions regarding evil, which must be considered within the cultural framework of archaic Greek civilization: (1) the gods, or more precisely the gods’ and goddesses’ leader, Zeus, is responsible for the existence both of evil and of good things; he is the one who apportions human destiny, and (2) evil is inevitable.
If the responsibility of Zeus well fits the wider, ancient belief according to which everything comes from, or is granted by gods – from the world itself to human skills, from physical phenomena to abstract qualities – Zeus’ involvement in the coming into being of evil as inevitable, inescapable lot for human beings. Such idea mirrors a deeply rooted concept of evil common among early societies and shared by the two main cultural traditions that, despite significant differences, shape the modern Western civilization, i.e. the Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions. This concept centers on the woman as accountable for the existence of hardship, sufferings, and thus evil in the world. In ancient Greek tradition this woman is Pandora, the one who gives origin to the deadly race of women (Hesiod, Theogony 590); she is also the one for whose creation and inevitable evil nature Zeus is the responsible.
This is what the ancient Greek poet Hesiod (8th c. BC) tells in some famous lines of his two main poems, the Theogony (ll. 570-612), and Works and Days (ll. 53-104)[1]. In both passages the creation of Pandora is the outcome of Zeus’ precise will to punish early mankind for having been benefited through the tricks that Prometheus, the divine benefactor of human beings, played at Zeus’ expense. As a matter of fact, in occasion of the first sacrifice to gods, Prometheus tricks Zeus both into accepting the inferior portion of animal sacrifices (bones covered by fat), and reserving the edible parts (the meat) for human consumption. Zeus counteracts by depriving humankind of fire. Prometheus then outwits Zeus by stealing fire from heaven, in a fennel stalk, to give it again to mortals. The possession of fire is equated then with all its cultural benefits: the ability to cook the food, to forge weapons and tools, etc. To balance Prometheus’ forbidden good gift to men, Zeus finally decides to present humans with his own gift, a gift of evil, meant to spoil Prometheus’ enlightenment. Pandora, the first woman in ancient Greek cosmos, is the gift of evil sent by Zeus in the world:
“... and so [Prometheus] bit deeply the heart
of Zeus, the high lord of thunder, who was angry
when he saw the distant gleam of fire among men,
and straight off he gave them trouble to pay for the fire.
The famous Lame God plastered up some clay
to look like a shy virgin, just like Zeus wanted,
and Athena, the Owl-Eyed Goddess,
got her all dressed up in silvery clothes
and with her hands draped a veil from her head,
an intricate thing, wonderful to look at.
He [Zeus] made this lovely evil to balance the good,
then led her off to the other gods and men
and they were stunned,
immortal gods and mortal men, when they saw
the sheer deception, irresistible to men.
From her is the race of female women,
the deadly race and population of women,
a great infestation among mortal men,
at home with wealth but not with poverty.
It’s the same as with bees in their overhung hives
feeding the drones, evil conspirators.
The bees work every day until the sun goes down,
busy all day long making pale honeycombs,
while the drones stay inside, in the hollow hives,
stuffing their stomachs with the work of others.
That’s just how Zeus, the high lord of thunder,
made women as a curse for mortal men,
evil conspirators. And he added another evil
to offset the good. Whoever escapes marriage
and women’s harm, comes to deadly old age
without any son to support him. He has no lack
while he lives, but when he dies distant relatives
divide up his estate. Then again, whoever marries
as fated, and gets a good wife, compatible,
has a life that is balanced between evil and good,
a constant struggle. But if he marries the abusive kind,
he lives with pain in his heart all down the line,
pain in spirit and mind, incurable evil”
(Hesiod, Theogony 567-612. Translation by S. Lombardo)
Thus woman, created to give man troubles and sufferings, seems to personify the quintessence of evil[2], the origin of every evil, the source and the reason for evil, the inevitability of encountering evil.
Thus, the ultimate reason for the entrance of evil in the world is Zeus. Indeed, Pandora is an instrument in Zeus’ hands. It is Zeus who meant to introduce her as the source of all troubles. It is Zeus who creates, through Pandora, a precise kind of evil, a deceptive one, attractive and appealing on the outside, resembling something good (a caste and shy girl), but hiding bad things inside, the “sheer deception” wonderfully described through the striking oxymoron kalòn kakòn (literally “a beautiful/lovely evil thing). It is Zeus, finally, who makes his lovely evil an irresistible and incurable one, so that nobody could escape. Whether or not you get married, that is, whether or not you deal with women, because of them you will encounter evils, anyway.
But, of what exactly does the evil brought and personified by woman consist?
The answer to this question tells us much more about the way in which in early Greek society, evil was conceived. The evil brought and personified first by Pandora is nothing but hardship, and women are themselves evil in that they burden men. Women, free women, like drones, do not work but consume the income of their men’ work. In very early Greek worldview, working is not a commonly accepted way of making livelihood; indeed, it is a pain, since there was a time-- the Golden Age-- when earth spontaneously provided humans with food, and thus there was no need to work, nothing to do with hard work or grief:
“... the gods never let on
how humans might make a living. Else
you might get enough done in one day
to keep you fixed for a year without working.
You might just hang your plowshare up in the smoke,
and all the fieldwork done by your oxen...
But Zeus got his spleen up and went and hid
how to make a living [without hardworking], all because shifty Prometheus
tricked him. That’s why Zeus made life hard for humans.
He hid fire. But that fine son of Iapetos [Prometheus] stole it
right back out from under Zeus’ nose
... and thundering Zeus... got angry and said: “Iapetos’ boy....
I bet you’re glad you stole fire and outfoxed me.
But things will go hard for you and for humans after this.
I’m going to give them Evil in exchange for fire,
Their very own Evil to love and embrace”
(Hesiod, Works and Days 43-58. Translation by S. Lombardo)
And this Evil “to love and embrace” is Pandora.
Forced to work, while women are not allowed to work, men are going to deal with the ordinary hard life , and have to provide for their own as well as their wives’ and family’s subsistence. And, as Zeus wants, there is no way to escape this evil
if a man tries to escape women and marriage, in order no to be forced to hard work and suffering, he is destined to a sad and lonely old age, without anybody who takes care of him;
if a man gets married and he is lucky to have a good woman, nevertheless he will have good and evil forever, since woman per se, independently from her individual character, is evil in that she is meant “to eat” her husband’s income;
if a man gets married and he is unlucky to have a woman that has also an individual bad attitude, for him there is no way to escape any kind of sorrow and evil.
This is Zeus’ plan, which mirrors how woman is viewed and what the very early concept of evil is: all women are the same by the fact of their very nature (since birth); therefore, woman is evil in humankind. This, also, inevitably uncovers thoughts underlying the social structure: ancient Greek world is a patriarchal one where the female component cannot be viewed but as a potential source of chaos in a previously all-male world order.
Because she is responsible for the entrance of evil in the world, Pandora is often compared to Eve, who too was created after man and is responsible for his troubles, his loss of Paradise. In the other version of Pandora’s myth that Hesiod offers in Works and Days, there is a peculiar act by Pandora that seems to provide a parallel to the doctrine of original sin, and consequently to the similar conception of Eve. After describing how Zeus ordered several gods and goddesses to manufacture the “lovely evil”, to give her specific qualities so that she would be a creature of irresistible beauty, the poet reports how then Zeus, through Hermes, the speedy messenger-god, sent Pandora to Earth[3], and comments on the effects by these words:
“... Before that [the arrival of Pandora] the human race
had lived off the land without any trouble, no hard work,
no sickness or pain ...
But the woman took the lid off the big jar with her hands
and scattered all the miseries that spell sorrow for men.
Only Hope was left there in the unbreakable container,
stuck under the lip of the jar, and couldn’t fly out:
the woman clamped the lid back on the jar first,
all by the plan of the Aegisholder, cloud-herding Zeus.
But then thousand or so other horrors spread out among men,
the earth is full of evil things, and so’s the sea”
(Hesiod, Works and Days 90-101. Translation by S. Lombardo)
In this version of myth, not simply is the birth and arrival of Pandora what mark the entrance of evil in the world. It is her act of opening the jar what provokes “the loss of paradise.” Before her arrival and her opening of the jar, there was no trouble, no hard work, no sickness, no miseries or sorrow at all. Although Hesiod does not mention where the jar comes from, nor does he say anything that allows us to ascribe the opening to an intentional act of dangerous curiosity by Pandora, by the time of early Christian apologists (c. 1st-2nd c. AD.) Pandora’s opening of the jar was compared to Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit[4]. Both actions mark the entrance of suffering and hardship in the world; both women – Pandora and Eve – Inevitably embody evil.
However, a closer analysis reveals important differences. Just to touch on some of them: Pandora’s creation by Zeus is meant to bring evil in human life, while Eve’s creation by God is meant to give a partner, a supportive companion to man. More importantly, Eve is told not to eat of the apple; she knew it was forbidden, yet she chose - so to speak - to eat of it by letting herself be persuaded by the serpent to do so. As hinted at above, nowhere in Hesiod’s recount is Pandora prohibited to open the jar[5]. Everything, from opening the jar to closing it before Hope escaped, is “all by the plan of Zeus”, which means Pandora does not choose to act as she acted. Despite these significant discrepancies, there is no doubt that in both cases woman and evil are identified with each other.
In ancient Greek concept of evil as embedded and spread by the female gender, there is something more that lets us go back to the starting quotation of this discussion: due to Zeus’ will, human life is characterized by evil - inevitable evil - and by a mixture of evil and good things. As a matter of fact, not only is Pandora the inevitable evil Zeus is responsible for; she is also the one who reserves for men a sort of antidote against evils: in compliance with the wishes of Zeus she keeps hope inside the jar, while all evils are scattered. The presence of hope in Pandora’s jar has been long debated: being media vox, hope can in turn be a good or bad thing, i.e. expectation of good or negative foreboding, mere illusion. Given that the world’s occurrences in early Greek poetry show mainly a positive meaning, the content of Pandora’s jar may mirror both the mixture of good and evil which Zeus apportions as human destiny, and the mixture of good and evil that the woman herself might personify: women are the evil par excellence for men since they have been created to be so, but women may “hopefully” have a good attitude and give men evils mixed with good things, exactly in accordance with the plan of Zeus.
It finally might be interesting to also notice that the very starting point of Pandora--Evil’s entrance in the world--is the struggle between the gods’ king, Zeus, and Prometheus who personifies, in ancient Greek society, a peculiar culture type: the so-called ‘trickster’. The trickster is one who delights in his ability to outsmart others, demonstrating an ethical ambivalence, since he can work for either good or evil. His deviant actions ultimately serve to benefit humankind. Twice Prometheus tricked Zeus for the sake of humans’ welfare. It is not by accident that, in later versions of Prometheus’ myth, he definitively is presented as benefactor (e.g in Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound ; Plato, Protagoras). Considering that in some of the so-called primitive societies the trickster is a figure of evil, but at the same time a positive entity in that he plays as civilizing role, it seems that since the beginning of our history evil is conceived as an inevitably inseparable counterpart of good, as if the pure good cannot exist alone.
Could it be that Zeus’ two urns, the double of Pandora and her jar, which mirror the twofold nature of humans and human life, symbolize this existentialist assumption ancient people already conceived and attempted to explain through their myths? More importantly, is it really so? Can we not escape from evil? What may be true is that the promotion of human civilization and the consequent progress have had a price which mostly has taken form of some kind of evil. But, many other fundamental matters are here involved, and a detailed discussion is perhaps outside the scope of this paper. However, to take it from Hesiod’s words: there is still hope left to human beings.
To conclude, the figure of Pandora and all members of the female gender epitomize the very primordial concept of evil and its creation. Obviously, the view evolved throughout the centuries up to a point that men are not any more victim of gods’ plan and thus forced to encounter evil. Indeed they are the main reason for their own evil. This conceptual evolution starts very soon in the early archaic period itself (see, e.g. Homer, Odyssey 1. 32-34),and it leads to the description of the decline of humankind. Thus the dealing with evil, in terms of violent passage from savagery to civilization (see, e.g., Hesiod, Works and Days 106-179) becomes then object of philosophical speculation (e.g. Plato, Respublica 379c-380c, 617e 4-5), and finally comes even to assume contemporary colors when the playwright Sophocles (5th c. BC) claims “Money! No institution that’s as evil ever / grew into existence for the human race” (Sophocles, Antigone 295-96. Translation by R. Blondell).
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