Pandora and Pandora's Box 潘多拉和潘多拉的盒子

王倩倩Annie

Pandora

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageandora.jpg][/url] [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageandora.jpg][/url]
"The Creation of "[A]NESIDORA" on a white-ground kylix by the Tarquinia Painter, ca 460 BC (British Museum


After the stealing of fire，Zeus 宙斯 became increasingly unkind to men．One day he ordered his son Hephaestus 赫菲斯托斯 to build an image of a beautiful maiden out of clay．He then asked the gods and goddesses to award her with different kinds of gifts．Among others，Athena 雅典娜 clothed her in an attractive coat and Hermes 赫耳墨斯 gave her the power of telling lies．A charming young lady，she was the first woman that ever lived．Zeus called her Pandora 潘多拉．Because she had received from each of the gods and goddesses a gift．The gift was harmful to men．
Zeus decided to send her down to men as a present．So Hermes the messenger brought her to 厄庇墨透斯，brother of Prometheus 普罗米修斯．The greatness of her beauty touched the hearts of all who looked upon her，and Epimetheus happily received her into his house．He had quite forgotten Pometheus' warning：never to accept anything from Zeus．The couple lived a happy life for some time．Then trouble came on to the human world．
When he was busy with teaching men the art of living，Prometheus had left a big cask in the care of Epimetheus．He had warned his brother not to open the lid．Pandora was a curious woman．She had been feeling very disappointed that her husband did not allow her to take a look at the contents of the cask．One day，when Epimetheus was out，she lifted the lid and out it came unrest and war，plague and sickness，theft and violence，  grief sorrow，and all the other evils．The human world was hence to experience these evils．Only hope stayed within the mouth of the jar and never flew out．So men always have hope within their hearts．
潘多拉  
偷窃天火之后，宙斯对人类的敌意与日俱增。一天，他令儿子赫菲斯托斯用泥塑一美女像，并请众神赠予她不同的礼物。其中，雅典娜饰之以华丽的衣裳，赫耳墨斯赠之以说谎的能力。世上的第一个女人是位迷人女郎，因为她从每位神灵那里得到了一样对男人有害的礼物，因此宙斯称她为潘多拉（pander：意为煽动）。
宙斯决定把她作为礼物送给世间的男子。于是信使赫耳墨斯将她带给普罗米修斯的弟弟厄庇墨透斯。她姿容绝美，见者无不为之倾心。厄庇墨透斯兴高采烈地把她迎入屋内。普罗米修斯警告过他不得接受宙斯的任何馈赠，而他已将之忘于脑后。这一对夫妻有过一段幸福的生活，但不久灾难却降临人间。
当普罗米修斯忙于教授人们生存之道的时候，他把一个桶托付给厄庇墨透斯。他警告过他的弟弟不要打开桶盖。潘多拉好奇心强。她的丈夫不允许她看桶中之物，这使她感到十分懊恼。一天乘厄庇墨透斯出门在外，她打开桶盖，从桶里跑出的是不和与战争，瘟疫与疾病，偷窃与暴力，悲哀与忧虑，以及其他一些人类从此要遭受的不幸。只有希望被关在桶口，永远飞不出来，因此人们常常把希望藏于心中。

The gift of fire had been given to man, but Zeus, King of the gods, was not content (satisfied) that man should possess (own, have) this treasure in peace. He therefore talked it over with the other gods and together they made for man a woman.
All the gods gave gifts to this new creation. She was named Pandora which means All-gifted, since each of the gods had given her something. The last gift was a box in which there was supposed to be a great treasure, but which Pandora was instructed never to open. Then Hermes, the Messenger, took the girl and brought her to a man named Epimetheus.
Epimetheus had been warned to receive no gifts from Zeus, but he was a headless person and Pandora was very lovely. He accepted her. For a while they lived together in happiness. Eventually, however, Pandora’s curiosity got the better of her, and she determined to see for herself what treasure it was that the gods had given her. One day when she was alone, she went over to the corner where her box lay and cautiously lifted the lid for a peep. The lid flew up out of her hands and knocked her aside, while before her frightened eyes dreadful, shadowy shapes flew out of the box in an endless stream.
They were hunger, disease, war, greed, anger, jealousy, toil (hard work), and all the griefs and hardships to which man from that day has been subject. At last the stream slackened (weakened, became weak), and Pandora, who had been paralyzed with fear and horror, found strength to shut her box.
The only thing left in it now, however, was the one good gift the gods had put in among so many evil ones. This was hope, and from that time the hope that is in man’s heart is the only thing which has made him able to stand the sorrows that Pandora brought upon him.


Nicolas Régnier, Allegory of Vanity - Pandora, c. 1626. Régnier portrayed Pandora with a jar, not a box



The myth according to Hesiod: the TheogonyThe Pandora myth first appears in lines 560-612 of Hesiod's (ca. 8th-7th centuries BC) epic poem, the Theogony, without ever giving the woman a name. After humans have received the gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decides to give men a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mould from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the race of men. After Hephaestus does so, Athena dressed her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, garlands and an ornate crown of gold. This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony, but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in Works and Days. When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. But she was "sheer guile, not to be withstood by men." Hesiod elaborates (590-93):

From her is the race of women and female kind:
of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who
live amongst mortal men to their great trouble,
no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.

Hesiod goes on to lament that men who try to avoid the evil of women by avoiding marriage will fare no better (604-7):

He reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years,
and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives,
yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them.

Hesiod concedes that occasionally a man finds a good wife, but still (609) "evil contends with good."

[ 本帖最后由 王倩倩Annie 于 2008-10-20 23:58 编辑 ]