A Hellenist's review of Natalie Haynes' Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (Pandora the first woman ever)

 Hello everyone

The first chapter is the eponymous Pandora, she is famous for giving us the idiom "Pandora's Box" but as Haynes pointed out, it was not a box, but a jar or vase. The story of Pandora comes from Hesiod's works appearing both in Theogony and more detailed in Works and Days. The famous Pandora's box is indeed a πίθος (píthos) and it is like a barrel since it typically held liquid and was part of freight. Pandora is known as the first woman of Ancient Greek mythology, and Haynes herself makes a comparison to mythic story of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, which is already an often used comparison. Remember kids, the Bible is Christian Mythology too, as most religions have mythologies. The way this story is told is that Pandora opened her jar, either for curiosity or malice, and had released something evil and hardships, and Hesiod sets this after Prometheus steals Fire itself from the Gods, in particular Zeus. The story ends with her only finding hope in it or on the back of the lid, and Hope or ἐλπίς is a divine personification of her namesake, and in Works and Days this story serves as her origins. Many concepts, often abstract, were deified in classical mythology. However, hope in English may not be the best exact translation, as ἐλπίς (Spēs when rendered in Latin) in Ancient Greek has both positive and negative connotations and was, as some scholars, say expectation. Nowadays we talk of Pandora and her story as the aphorism goes "Curiosity killed the cat" which here refers to the evils released from the box. Of course her name is more than that and characters and figures get reduced to oversimplified versions that end up miss the point of the story. Her literal name is the Gift to All, the World, Everyone, however you want to slice it. Ritual offerings and gifts are one of the core practices of Hellenism, reciprocity with the Gods and us mortals. The Earth herself is the primordial goddess. Pandora is the consort of Epimetheus, the titan of afterthought and hindsight, he sees what will happen, his brother Prometheus has the foresight and thinks ahead, thus he steals or unlawfully takes the fire from the Gods, whereas Epimetheus receives and gets the Gift to all, ie Pandora herself. The thematic message of the story has many aspects: why is there evil and maladies in this world, a classic theodicy, and to depict the relationship between the Gods and humanity. 

Natalie Haynes of course uses her and many female protagonists of classical mythology to synthesize an analysis on how the messages' receptions and how cultural understanding of Classical Hellenic mythology evolves over time even when Greece and Europe transformed and turned their back on their Gods for someone else, often by force, but that's a story for another time. She reminds us of how the norms were and compares it to now, especially since "Western" for a lack of a better term society claims its roots in Classical Era Greece and therefore takes heritage in Hellenistic culture and values even if it has been at best misplaced or at worst appropriated especially by Christians and Western Europeans of the 19th century who saw the Hellenes as a lost people. Again, a story for another time.

Hayes is definitely a strong and great writer who can help modern audience rethink their understanding of classical mythology especially from a non-religious angle. Though, mythology is not religion, the conflation of both is a Christian especially Protestant invention, that placed mythological texts on the highest levels. We cannot totally escape our upbringings but we can try to think about it and ask questions, so she raises questions and we the readers will find the answers in due time.

-Diana Asteria.