PANDORAS BOX QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES FOR G10

test QUESTIONS

1. Pandora’s Box Comprehension Questions 1.Who was the most powerful god? 2.How could Prometheus be described? 3.How did Zeus punish Prometheus for stealing fire? 4.Who else did Zeus punish? 5.Who helped Zeus to create Pandora and how did they help? 6.Who was given a small box? 7.What came out of the box? 8.Why did Epimetheus need to console Pandora? 9.Why did Pandora and Epimetheus open the box again? 10.Why did hope make a difference in the world?

2. Pandora’s Box Comprehension Questions 1.Who was the most powerful god? -Zeus 2. How could Prometheus be described? -Prometheus had a kind heart and was clever. 3.How did Zeus punish Prometheus for stealing fire? - Zeus chained Prometheus to the side of a cliff for many years. 4.Who else did Zeus punish? -Humans. 5.Who helped Zeus to create Pandora and how did they help? - Hephaestos helped to mould Pandora out of clay, Athena breathed life into her, Aphrodite made her beautiful and Hermes taught her to be both charming and deceitful.

3. Pandora’s Box Comprehension Questions 6.Who was given a small box? - Pandora and Epimetheus as a wedding present. 7.What came out of the box? - Sickness, death, poverty and sadness in the form of a horrible black mass. 8.Why did Epimetheus need to console Pandora? - Pandora was weeping because she had let all the horrible things into the world. 9.Why did Pandora and Epimetheus open the box again? - They heard a little voice inside the box and thought nothing could be worse than what they had already released. 10.Why did hope make a difference in the world? - Hope healed some of the sickness and sorrow.

4. Pandora’s box

5. In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman, created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god co-operated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground  kylix  in the British Museum—is  Anesidora sends up gifts“ The Pandora myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world. According to this, Pandora opened a jar , in modern accounts sometimes mistranslated as "Pandora's box", releasing all the evils of humanity. Hesiod's interpretation of Pandora's story, sometimes considered as misogynous, went on to influence both Jewish and Christian theology and so perpetuated her bad reputation into the Renaissance. Later poets, dramatists, painters and sculptors made her their subject and over the course of five centuries contributed new insights into her motives and significance.

6. Pithos  into "box" The mistranslation of  pithos , a large storage jar, as "box" is usually attributed to the sixteenth century humanist  when he translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Hesiod's  pithos  refers to a large storage jar, often half-buried in the ground, used for wine, oil or grain. It can also refer to a funerary jar. Erasmus, however, translated  pithos  into the Latin word  pyxis , meaning "box". The phrase "Pandora's box" has endured ever since.

7. STORY When Prometheus stole fire from the gods, Zeus created Pandora as a punishment for mankind. One would think Zeus had doled out enough punishment after sentencing Prometheus to spend an eternity chained to a rock while birds pecked at his liver, but it seemed the king of the gods had more in store. Zeus commissioned the god Hephaestus to sculpt a beautiful woman out of clay, and she was given gifts from a few gods before she was sent down to fulfill her purpose. Pandora was sent to be the wife of  Epimetheus (Prometheus's brother), and only brought one thing with her: a container full of all the world's evils.  Of course, Zeus didn't tell Pandora what was inside the box - instead, he told her to never open it, and then gave the key to her husband, because when you tell someone to not do something, you put temptation as close as possible. Can you blame her for sneaking a peek? 

8. What Was Actually Inside Pandora's Box? The myth of Pandora is one for the ages. Woman, created to punish man, accidentally releases all of the world's horrors, unleashing evil on Earth. Maybe not a bedtime story for children. But what came out of Pandora's box? Who knew exactly what was inside and what would come flying out? And who is Pandora, the enigmatic first woman, the curious creation of the gods? Pandora's story is one told long before modern language, lending itself to a long history of lore and misinterpretation. Her myth is a moral story, a warning to heed that maybe curiosity does kill the cat.

9. How did the myth arise?  It arose as a way of explaining why dreadful things happened, such as people getting sick and dying.  As in many origin myths, man had lived in a world without worry – until this jar / box was opened, which contained ills for mankind. Zeus knew that Pandora’s curiosity would mean that she could not stop herself from opening it, especially when he had told her that she must not do so.  

10. Many other myths also explain the ills of the world by saying they are caused by human disobedience of a god’s instructions . Even Hope itself has been argued about by scholars – not everyone agreeing that it is a great good – that maybe Zeus meant it as an evil also – otherwise it would not have been in a jar of evil. Others believe that Zeus may have relented a little, and put Hope in to help mankind through the hard times that the other ‘gifts’ would bring .

11. What does it mean to us today? Today, Pandora’s box means a source of troubles. When we talk about opening Pandora’s box, we use it as a metaphor to mean that we may not know what we are getting ourselves into! Sometimes, that we do not always know how something we have started may end, that we do not know the consequences of our actions.