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I know Promethius (Promethius and Epimethius were brothers and titans) created man and Epimethius created beast. But what part does Epimethius have in Pandora's box?

2007-03-06 15:06:12 · 3 answers · asked by Promethius 2 in Society & Culture Mythology & Folklore

3 answers

Epimetheus fell in love with Pandora and became the latter's husband, with Pyrrha as their offspring. He told ber not to open the box but, due to her curiousity, opened it and released all the misfortunes of mankind.

Their story went like this:

The titan Epimetheus ("hindsight") was responsible for giving a positive trait to each and every animal. However, when it was time to give man a positive trait, as Prometheus, his brother, had taken much longer to create man, there was nothing left. Prometheus ("foresight"), his brother, felt that because man was superior to all other animals, man should have a gift no other animal possessed. So Prometheus set forth to steal fire from Zeus and handed it over to man.

Zeus, enraged, decided to punish Prometheus. To punish Prometheus, Zeus chained him in unbreakable fetters and set an eagle over him to eat his liver each day, as the eagle is Zeus's sacred animal. Prometheus was an immortal, so the liver grew back every day, but he was still tormented daily from the pain, until he was freed by Heracles during The Twelve Labours. Another possible reason for Prometheus' torment was because he knew which of Zeus' lovers would bear a child who would eventually overthrow Zeus. Zeus commanded that Prometheus reveal the name of the mother, but Prometheus refused, instead choosing to suffer the punishment.

However, Zeus also had to punish mankind. The punishment was woman. More specifically, Pandora, her name meaning 'all gifts'. Pandora was given several traits from the different gods: Hephaestus molded her out of clay and gave her form; Athena clothed her and the Charites adorned her with necklaces made by Hephaestus; Aphrodite gave her beauty; Apollo gave her musical talent and a gift for healing; Demeter taught her to tend a garden; Poseidon gave her a pearl necklace and the ability to never drown; Hera gave her curiosity; Hermes gave her cunning, boldness, and charm.[citation needed] Zeus gave her insatiable curiosity and mischievousness. Thus the name Pandora—"all gifts"—in Hesiod's version derives from the fact that she received gifts from all deities.

The most significant of these gifts, however, was a pithos or storage jar,[1] given to Pandora either by Hermes or Zeus. Before he was chained to the rock, Prometheus had warned Epimetheus not to take any gifts from the gods. However, when Pandora arrived, he fell in love with her. Hermes told Epimetheus that Pandora was a gift to the titan from Zeus, and he warned Epimetheus not to open the jar, which was Pandora's dowry.

Until then, mankind lived life in a paradise without worry. Epimetheus told Pandora never to open the jar she had received from Zeus. However, Pandora's curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, releasing all the misfortunes of mankind: "For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills [kakoi] and hard toil [ponoi] and heavy sickness [nosoi argaleai] which bring the Keres [baleful spirits] upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly" (Hesiod, Works and Days). Once opened, she shut it in time to keep one thing in the jar: hope 1. The world remained extremely bleak for an unspecified interval, until Pandora "chanced" to revisit the box again, at which point Hope fluttered out. Thus, mankind always has hope in times of evil.

In another, more philosophical version of the myth, hope (Elpis) is considered the worst of the potential evils, because it is equated with terrifying foreknowledge. By preventing hope from escaping the jar, Pandora in a sense saves the world from the worst damage.

The daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora was Pyrrha, who married Deucalion and was one of the two who survived the deluge.

2007-03-06 16:16:30 · answer #1 · answered by Mye 4 · 1 0

As I recall he was the Husband of Pandora, he even warned her not to open the box, even as his brother had warned him to be wary of any gift from the gods (which the box was).

2007-03-07 02:32:18 · answer #2 · answered by gotherunereadings 3 · 0 0

And I looked and there was a rider on a pale horse, and his name was death.
the bible

2007-03-06 23:25:53 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 2

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