Pandora's Jar Poem by Shaun Cronick

The myth surrounding Pandora's Box is well documented.
And it is wrong.
It was never a Box.
It was a Jar.
Pandora's Jar.
This myth has always been shrouded in confusion.
Pandora means all-giving or gift.
She first appeared in Hesiod's Theogony,
As the bringer of all evil to humankind.
She was perhaps a misogynist retaliation,
Against an earlier fertility goddess.
Zeus's retribution for Prometheus's gift of fire,
To humanity was to order Hephaestus to make,
The first woman out of clay.
But with a twist.
A nasty twist.
She was given beneficial as well as,
Deceitful attributes by the Gods.
Then delivered to Epimetheus,
The brother of Prometheus,
As a wife.
And arrived on Earth bearing her,
Jar of gifts.
Which Epimetheus could not refuse.
It is never clear who opened the Jar.
Pandora of Epimetheus.
Whoever opened it,
Released all the Evils.
Misfortunes and disasters of the world flew out,
With zealous cruel abandon,
On all humankind.
Except for Hope or Expectation
Translated from the Greek word elpis.
The irony is...
Is this a good or bad thing for humankind?
If Hope is imprisoned in the Jar,
Then the human race is doomed.
If Hope however is kept safe in the Jar,
Then human beings cannot corrupt it.
It's how the reader interprets the myth,
Or how they perceive it.
Pandora's story is a mystery.
No-one knows what happened to her afterwards.
She simply vanished off the face of the Earth.
Her legacy and mythical Jar,
Will remain forever.

Copyright Shaun Cronick 2019. All Rights Reserved.