The passage is from Hesiod, Works and Days: "[Zeus to Prometheus]`Son of Iapetos, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire -- a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.'
So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaistos make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Kronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Kronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Kharites and queenly Peitho (Persuasion) put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Horai crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also t! he Guide, the Slayer of Argus [Hermes], contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora (All-Gifts), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread. But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer [Hermes], the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood. For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Elpis (Hope) remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus." -Works & Days 54-105 >Speculation (or, as Marshall McLuhan would have called it, >a "probe"): > > Osama bin Laden answered the riddle of the Sphinx. > > In the Greek version, the Sphinx falls off a cliff > and kills herself (presumably her reason for living > is gone after her riddle has been solved). > > In the real world 21st century version of the story, > the Sphinx just sits there in a catatonic state of > bafflement because she doesn't know what to do > after her riddle has been answered [i.e., the Cold > War is over]. But Osama gives her a little > push and off the cliff she goes, not willingly but > just as effectively. > >As for Pandora's box, maybe someone knows who >(and for what purpose...) made and provisioned it? > >We do seem to read in the "media" (e.g., the NYT), >that the USA aided and abetted Saddam Hussein and the >percursors of Al Qaeda and other Afghan warlords when >we thought they could help us defeat "The Evil Empire", >but we all know that, and it's water over the dam (disbursements >long since disbursed...).... > >Do a Google search on "Pandors's Box", and see what you get.... >--I was expecting to find info about the Greek myth. > >Was Pandora's box the Greek equivalent of The Tree of Knowledge >in The Garden of Eden? Yet another "tale of foolish curiosity" >(ref.: _Don Quixote_) perpetrated by foolish deities/Deity >against humanity? A prayer: > > Dear Lord, may I remain beneath your notice. > >\brad mccormick -- _________________________________________________________________________ Tom Lowe One of the most powerful aspects of Jackson, Mississippi delusion, or ignorance, is the belief [EMAIL PROTECTED] that what we do does not really matter http://www.jacksonprogressive.com -- Sharon Salzberg
