Pandora's Box

i^eus was very angry with the people who were so pleased with the gift of fire from Prometheus. He decided to punish them.

He asked the other gods to help him make a special woman. When they had finished, she was very beautiful; she was bright and clever, and could play lovely music. Zeus called her Pandora.

Then Zeus sent for Epimetheus. "Here is a wife for you, Epimetheus," he said. "She is a reward for making all the animals on the Earth." Zeus gave Pandora and Epimetheus a box which was bound and locked. 'Take this box and keep it safe. I must warn you," said Zeus, "that you must never open it."

Epimetheus thanked Zeus and gazed at Pandora. She was so beautiful that he forgot that his brother, Prometheus, had warned him never to accept gifts from the other

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gods. He took Pandora away and soon they were married. He put the

box in a dark corner of his house.

Pandora was very happy with her new husband. The world

was a wonderful place to live in. No one was ever ill or grew old.

No one was ever unkind or unpleasant. But Pandora was curious about the locked box and the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to know what was in it. Could it be jewels or some other precious things?

"Lefs just have a little peek inside," she said to Epimetheus, smiling sweetly at him. "No, Zeus warned us never to open it," answered Epimetheus, frowning. He wanted to do everything he could to please his wife but he was scared of Zeus. Day after day Pandora begged Epimetheus to open the box and every day he refused.

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One morning, when Epimetheus had gone out, Pandora crept into the room and stared at the box for a while. Then she made up her mind. She would open it.

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She broke off the lock with a tool. Then, hardly daring to breathe, she slowly lifted the lid. Before she could look inside, there was a terrible screaming, wailing noise. She jumped back, terrified. Out of the box streamed all sorts of horrible things. There was hate and jealousy, cruelty

and anger, hunger and poverty, pain and sickness, old age and death.

Pandora tried to slam down the but it was too late. Then one last

thing, very small and pretty, fluttered out of the box.

It was hope.

People would now suffer all kinds of terrible things, but because they had hope, they would never despair.