Pandora was soon adopted by a man called Epimetheus, who was the brother of Prometheus. He brought her into his home, and she stayed there with him. Epimetheus lived in a small village, and every day the people would dance and sing in the sunshine all day long. Food was provided for them by fig trees, and there was a near by river for water. At this time, there was no such thing as people dying from old age; they would grow to maturity, and then stop ageing all together. There was no sickness, no hunger, no poverty, and no misery; their lives on earth were perfect. Pandora lived with these people for several blissful years, but she always remembered the box that Zeus had given her sitting in the corner of her home, and her explicit instructions never to open it.
Years past since Pandora’s arrival to the village, and she sat up late one night sitting in front of the box. Moonlight poured through the window, setting the box aglow with a dull silvery radiance. It looked ordinary enough; a simple box made of oak with a simple lock on the front, for which she had the key. She was riddled with curiosity, but she just knew that it would be wrong for her to open the box. She picked it up, and carried it out to her garden at the back of the house. She dug a small hole in the centre of the garden with her small shovel and placed the box inside. She looked down at it one last time before covering it back up with the earth. She then took several large stones, and piled them on top of the hole. Satisfied, she returned to bed with Epimetheus and fell asleep.
As she slept, she began to have dreams. In her dreams, she would be sitting before the box with the key in her hands. She would careful insert the key into the keyhole and turn it, smiling as the faint click of the lock echoed through the room. As she opened the lid, she gasped in awe, for the box was filled with the most beautiful gems that she had ever seen! These were her gift from Zeus! But why wasn’t she supposed to open it? With those jewels, she and Epimetheus could live like a King and Queen! She awoke from her sleep, and sat up in bed. It was still dark, and Epimetheus was asleep at her side. She got out of bed, and ran out to her garden. She tore apart the rocks that she had set over the hole. Her hands were bruised and bleeding from the rocks by the time that she dove onto the dirt, but she didn’t seem to notice. She dug with her bare hands, wincing in pain as the soil stung her wounds, but she didn’t stop until her fingernails scraped the lid of the box. She pulled the box out of the hole onto the earth beside her, and dug furiously through her tunic for the key. She opened the lock and threw the lid open. A thick black smoke flooded out of the box, and into her eyes making her cry out in pain. When her vision had cleared, she looked down to see small demons escaping from the box. They were crawling, running and flying out of the box in all directions, spreading out into the world. She grabbed one of the creatures in one hand and thrust it back into the box. As she did this, it bit her on the hand. She immediately fell ill from the bite, and collapsed onto the ground finding enough energy to slam the lid on the box shut before anything else came out. She lay on the ground with the box in her arms panting heavily and retching with the sickness that the demon had given her.
“Please open the lid.” A small voice cried.
Pandora looked up the box, and put her eye up to the keyhole. She saw a golden light shining within the box, and figured it must be where the voice was coming from.
“How can I? Look at the damage I’ve caused already!” Pandora wheezed.
“Please let me out of the box. I’m not like the others, I can help to alleviate what you have done, to lessen the suffering of mankind.” the voice whispered. With her last bit of strength, Pandora lifted the lid then collapsed back down onto the earth. A small creature appeared before her. It radiated a beautiful golden light, and was in the form of a small woman with a pair of gossamer wings fluttering at her shoulders. The being came down to Pandora’s face, and kissed her lightly on the nose. Pandora’s suffering lessened at the sprite’s touch, and she suddenly had the strength to sit up.
The being hung in the air before her face, “I am Hope. I am the last of the spites in the box. Through your curiosity, you managed to release old age, sickness, plague, misery, selfishness, greed, and ugliness into the world. I am the Hope that will give the strength to mankind to battle these, but that is the best that can be done.”
Pandora opened her mouth to reply, but Hope was gone. From that day on, people began to get sick, grow old and die. Such was the punishment of Zeus upon the world for accepting something reserved for the gods, and no one else.
