Pandora's box

The Pandora's box contained, as the Greek mythology survived, all of humanity hitherto unknown evils such as labor, disease and death. They escaped into the world when Pandora opened the box.

Myth

At the behest of Zeus Hephaestus had created out of clay, the first woman was named Pandora. She was a part of the punishment for mankind because of the stolen by Prometheus fire. Prometheus ' brother Epimetheus and Pandora got married.

Zeus told Pandora to give people the bush and tell them that they should not be opened under any circumstances. But immediately after her marriage Pandora opened the box. Then escaped from her all the vices and bad habits. From this point on, the bad conquered the world. Before that mankind had not known no evil, troubles and diseases and even death. As the only positive the box contained the hope ( Elpis Greek ἐλπίς ). Before this could also escape the can was closed again. Thus the world was a desolate place until Pandora opened the box again, and so did the hope in the world. In contrast is the view of Nietzsche, according to the hope in truth the greatest evil of all the curses contained in the box is: Zeus wanted namely that man, no matter how much tormented by the other evil, but life does not throw away, but continued driving to have always torment anew. To this end, he gives man hope: in truth it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs the torment of man.

Reception

Gisela Fuchs According to the myth of Pandora in ancient times was hardly been received. He won again until the Renaissance in importance. Today the opening of Pandora's box is an epitome of the pins of a disaster that can not be make up.

Dora and Erwin Panofsky succeeded in 1956 to prove that the word rifle come from a translation error Erasmus of Rotterdam in the transmission of the Greek text into Latin. In Hesiod 's still a πίθος pithos - Greek for: large, earthen storage jar ' (eg for wine, oil or grain ) of the question. However, Erasmus changed the character of Pandora from: The Psyche of Apuleius as a model taking, was Erasmus of Pandora instead of πίθος (Latin: dolium ) as an attribute of the much lighter and thus portable pyxis (Greek: πυξίς Pyxis; Latin: vasculum ) means the box or tin.

The question of who opened the box is unclear: some sources attribute this fact to Epimetheus, some Pandora itself