WORD DU JOUR: Pandora

Your MesaZona blogger is linguistically curious. Most readers of this blog know that. Who was Pandora and what evolved?

 

For your interest:

Pandora From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Pandora (disambiguation).

Mythological figure

Pandora by John William Waterhouse

In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: Πανδώρα, derived from πᾶν, pān, i.e. "all" and δῶρον, dōron, i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving")^[1] was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus.^[2][3] As Hesiod related it, each god cooperated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum^[4]—is Anesidora (Ancient Greek: Ἀνησιδώρα), "she who sends up gifts"^[5] (up implying "from below" within the earth).

The Pandora myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world, according to which, Pandora opened a jar (pithos) (commonly referred to as "Pandora's box") releasing all the evils of humanity. It has been argued that Hesiod's interpretation of Pandora's story went on to influence both Jewish and Christian theology and so perpetuated her bad reputation into the Renaissance. Later poets, dramatists, painters and sculptors made her their subject.

 

 

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