Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [107]
As for the common expression “Pandora’s box,” it has a long history. In 1508, the Dutch author Desiderius Erasmus first used the phrase “Pandora’s box” instead of the original pithos in Greek, a traditional jar for storing grain. And since then, “Pandora’s box” has come to symbolize any object or situation that seems harmless on the outside but has a great potential for discord, evil, and unlimited harm.
MYTHIC VOICES
He hastily stored away the thunderbolts, forged by Cyclopes,
and conceived a different design, of opening dark heavy rain clouds,
In every quarter of heaven, and drowning mankind in the waters.
—OVID, Metamorphoses
Why does Zeus send a great flood to destroy man?
Prometheus plays a supporting role in another Greek story, which may be less familiar than that of Pandora, but has important biblical parallels.
In Works and Days, Hesiod described the creation of humanity in five separate ages. First came a golden race of mortals, during the time of Cronus, which disappeared without explanation. Next, Zeus created a race made of the precious metal silver, but they refused to make sacrifices to the gods and were wiped out. A third age was made of bronze, but they proved to be so warlike that they wiped themselves out. The fourth age was the Heroic Age, populated by a race of demigods created by Zeus. When they died, many of these heroes either were placed in the heavens as constellations, became companions of the gods, or went to live on the mythical Island of the Blessed, which was ruled by Cronus.
It is later, in the age of iron, that Zeus finally created the present generation of humans. But, according to Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when Zeus (Jupiter to Ovid) walked among these humans, he was disgusted, especially by a king who practiced cannibalism and human sacrifice. Zeus decided to destroy them. With the help of Poseidon, Zeus unleashed a tremendous flood and nearly all of humanity was killed. Two good souls, however, were saved. Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, and his wife, Pyrrha, who was the daughter of Pandora, had been warned by the prescient Prometheus of the imminent flood. Deucalion built a boat, sent out a bird—a dove, in his case—and, after the floodwaters subsided, the boat came to rest on a mountaintop.
All of these details, of course, echo both the Mesopotamian flood accounts and the biblical story. Like Noah, Deucalion and Pyrrha were allowed to live. But they were sad and lonely in an empty world. The voice of a goddess from a nearby cave told them to throw their “mighty mother’s bones” over their shoulders.
Puzzled at first, Deucalion realized that the command referred not to his own mother, but to Mother Earth—whose bones are rocks. Picking up stones, Deucalion and Pyrrha threw them over their shoulders, and they were turned into people, and Deucalion and Pyrrha were responsible for repopulating the earth. Among the “children” they created was their son Hellen, who gave his name to the entire Greek race, later known as the “Hellenes.”
Which mythical monster has the worst “bad hair day”?
First among the heroes of the Heroic Age was Perseus, the son of Zeus and his mortal lover Danaë. When Danaë’s father, a king, learns from an oracle that his own grandson will someday kill him, he sets Danaë and the infant Perseus adrift in a chest. They are saved by a fisherman, whose brother, Polydectes, rules the isle of Seriphus. Over time Polydectes falls in love with Danaë and wants to marry her, but she is unwilling. To prevent the marriage, the grown Perseus agrees to slay the Medusa, one of three monstrous sisters known as the Gorgons, whose ugliness turns men to stone. Once beautiful, Medusa had boasted of her beauty to Athena, who became jealous and changed her into a hideous monster with living snakes for hair. The Greeks carved images of Medusa’s head on their armor to frighten their enemies, and images of Medusa’s head were also used as charms to protect them from evil spells.
Aided by Hermes and Athena, Perseus