Fraternity Urban Legends

of the Magi the myth of Prometheus and Pandora


It is said that Prometheus, the son of the Titan Iapetus, modeled giving the man out of countenance similar to that of the gods: here stands the comparison with the spontaneous way in which God created Adam ... In addition to creating
Prometheus men wanted for their good and therefore, with the help of Minerva ( Athena), stole fire from the chariot of the sun and gave it to humanity. According to others, lit a torch from the fire that burned perpetually on Olympus, and others say they took it from the forge of Hephaestus (Vulcan). After giving fire to mankind, Prometheus taught them how to use it to build weapons to hunt and defend themselves with him learned to build houses, to shape vases and bowls.
When Zeus (Jupiter), he found that men became more and more progress, angry, punished Prometheus: bound him to a rock and every day an eagle ate his liver every night regrowth, so that punishment would be forever until when, one day, Hercules freed the Titan. A
Zeus, however, that revenge was not enough: he wanted to punish men.
Hephaestus molded her desire for a girl with clay and water: Athena gave her the breath of life.
Pandora was educated in the wiles and deceptions by Hermes (Mercury) and Aphrodite in the art of seduction, then, dressed in silver and crowned, went to the sight of Zeus.
Zeus gave her the gift of a box, never told her to keep it open for any reason (and here one thinks of Eva ... she did not have to take the tree of good and evil for no reason but ...) and proposes to marry Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus. He was not as wise as his brother and was flattered to marry the woman chosen for him by Zeus.
For some time the two lived happily (just as Adam and Eve in Eden), but one day, Pandora, tired and bored, while Epimetheus slept, overcome by curiosity and some to find some kind of wealth, he opened the casket.
Now, he unleashed all the evils that afflict humanity since then spreading everywhere. Pandora
desperately tried to quickly replace the box but it was too late. Zeus had taken revenge (as Lucifer, in the form of a serpent that tempts Eve ..)
The only thing that Pandora was able to lock in the casket was the hope with this humanity can since then to go on surviving pain diseases, and all sorts of adversity.
This mythological episode concludes that the poets call "'Golden Age." And in any case can be interpreted as an allegory fable that explains why so man must fight every day for his whole life against all kinds of adversity, however, aware that it can rely on the hope that in my opinion should never abandon .






Photos:
Laconian kylix with Prometheus and Atlas; manufactured in Sparta is a cup, attributed to the painter Archesilas II.
Cerveteri 560-550. BC Vatican Museums.
"Pandora" by John William Waterhouse.
"Adam and Eve" (detail) Peter Paul Rubens.