Have you ever felt like you were blamed for something that wasn't your fault?
Well this happened in the myth of Pandora.
Art history gives you the keys.
Pandora by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1871) private collection.
Pandora was born as a revenge of Zeus against Prometheus.
Let me explain:
Prometheus and Epimetheus were second generation titans. We have Prometheus, whose name means he who anticipates things, and Epimetheus, he who realizes things later.
Let's say that Epimetheus was the slow brother of the family.
The Titans ruled before the Olympian gods. They were going to lose their power. Then Prometheus makes a pact with Zeus: He will create life on Earth, Epimetheus made the animals and Prometheus makes men.
It is then that Prometheus realizes that men do not have hair to keep them warm. Prometheus goes to speak to Zeus and asks him for fire to warm the men.
Zeus refuses and Prometheus steals it. And all hell breaks loose.
Instead of unleashing the fury of the gods on Prometheus immediately - never better said - Zeus decided to sit back and take his time deciding what punishment would be for Prometheus.
And so he creates Pandora.
“Pandora” by Odilon Redon (1910). National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
The myth of Pandora was not taken up by the Romans after the Greeks. Even then it was a bit diffuse and perhaps the Romans thought it was better to leave it as it was.
It is widely represented in the history of art, from vases in the world of ancient Greece to painters in the British Romantic and Pre-Raphaelites.
Some of the most notable works are:
This fresco by Henry Howard from 1834. It belongs to the British Neoclassical style and is on the ceiling of the Sir John Soane's Museum.
The painter Henry Howard talks a lot about the myth in his paintings and with him we are going to discover the myth of Pandora.
Zeus asks Hermes to create a woman, unstable character, a bit of a liar. He asks Aphrodite and Athena to beautify her. Hermes taught her to lie, Artemis to sing, Demeter to cultivate... the most beautiful woman on earth. And also the first.
All of Olympus participates in its creation.
And Pandora means a gift for everyone.
(Pandora, Assembled by the Gods 1894, Henry Howard).
Diana, Mars, Venus, Cupid and Bacchus are present in this work by Henry Howard, as is the amphora that will bring evil to humanity.
Also in the painting is Mercury with winged sandals, who later took her to present her to Epimetheus (remember that he is the one who arrives later).
Despite Prometheus having warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus, Epimetheus falls in love with Pandora on sight and cannot think of anything else.
Henry Howard's 1834 painting “Epimetheus receives Pandora” with open arms, and the beautiful Pandora carried away by Mercury. He receives her with her box and marries her.
Since Epimetheus knew that his brother would not like the idea of this engagement at all, he soon married Pandora. And so, they received a gift from Zeus, an amphora that history changed into a box.
On the other hand, Zeus warned Pandora never to open her box. Pandora asked why, but Zeus simply forbade her.
The first version of the story tells that Epimetheus and Pandora were already married and out of curiosity Pandora opens the box and evils begin to emerge, she tries to close it and only hope remains.
And so Zeus punishes Prometheus, striking men with all kinds of evils on land and sea. Disease, famine, poverty, and so on.
The only thing that remained inside that amphora was hope.
But, but, but…
After various analyses of translations and works of art, we can find contradictions and errors in the myth that completely change the story of Pandora:
“Pandora” by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1834) National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.
Did Pandora really have a box?
It turns out that Erasmus of Rotterdam made a translation of the myth with an error. He confused the word pithos (ovoid jar) with pyxis , a box for jewels.
Work by the Pre-Raphaelite William Waterhouse (1896) private collection.
Another mistake is the meaning of Pandora's name.
Some authors point out that Pandora is the one who gives everything, not the gift of everyone. That changes the concept completely. That pythos (amphora) would no longer contain all the evils, but all the goods.
Here things get complicated and perhaps that is why the Romans did not want to get involved.
This Pandora by Nicolas Regnier (1592) is tenebrist, with its use of chiaroscuro, darkness, delicate and striking colors.
And the next question would be, Who opened Pandora's box?
And here it is El Greco who solves the mystery for us.
Epimetheus and Pandora (El Greco, Prado Museum 1600-1610).
El Greco made very little sculpture but this one is attributed to him.
This study of the myth is from an older point of view, since El Greco comes from the island of Crete in Greece.
In his sculpture we see a phytos in his hand, that is, not a box but an amphora, and the one holding it is Epimetheus, not Pandora.
Erasmus made a mistake when translating amphora as box, but he was the first to say that the one who had opened the box was Epimetheus.
Remember that his name means the one who thinks things over later and that would make more sense with this version.
Besides, why would Pandora want to open it? She was originally the gift in her box. It makes more sense for him to open it.
Also, in the most classical sources it is not mentioned that the box belonged to Pandora. It is possible that for millennia we associated Pandora with a crime that did not actually happen.
This myth could be perfectly associated with Adam and Eve, making the woman guilty. Furthermore, it would be logical to ask Prometheus what he thinks of his brother.
And the fact is that in history there is a lot of talk about Pandora, but not about Epimetheus. No one can blame Pandora when we have a man who thinks about things after doing them.
And it is thanks to El Greco that we clarify this myth.