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Pandora's Box

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Jane E. Harrison
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Extract

No myth is more familiar than that of Pandora, none perhaps has been so completely misunderstood. Pandora is the first woman, the beautiful mischief: she opens the forbidden box, out comes every evil that flesh is heir to; hope only remains. The box of Pandora is proverbial, and that is the more remarkable as she never had a box at all.

The myth of the making of Pandora we may reserve for the present and focus our attention on the famous ‘box.’ ‘Jupiter gave her a beautiful box,’ says Lemprière (p. 543). ‘In the house of Epimetheus was a closed jar;’ says the last edition of Smith's Classical Dictionary, but a little further down we read: ‘later writers relate that the box contained all the blessings of the gods.’ The reference given for this statement is Hyginus, Fab. cxlii., in which there is no mention whatever of any jar, casket or box, only an account of the creation and descendants of Pandora.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 20 , November 1900 , pp. 99 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1900

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References

page 101 note 1 Reproduced from Eine Attische Grablekythos: Inaugural-Dissertation von Paul Schadow, Jena, 1897. As Dr. Schadow's Dissertation is not very generally accessible, it seemed worth while to reproduce his illustration for reference in the text. In his monograph Dr. Schadow draws attention to the analogy of the thirteenth Anthesterion, the ‘Aller-seelen Fest der Griechen,’ but he suggests no connection with Pandora. For technical particulars as to the lekythos, and for the custom of burial in πίθοι, readers are referred to his monograph.

page 101 note 2 I see with regret that in his Feste der Stadt Athen (p 387) August Mommsen adheres to the old misreading Θύραζε Κᾶρες. If any injunction was issued to the Κᾶρες as household slaves, it would be to return to their work, interrupted by the license of the Anthesteria, not to quit the house. But in the face of the explanation of Photius, and of the analogy of the Roman Lemuria, the old explanation is obviously untenable. MrTylor, in his Primitive Culture (ii. 40Google Scholar), quoting Hannsch, (Slav. Myth. p. 408Google Scholar), tells of a Sclavonic custom closely paralleling that of the Anthesteria, even to the formula pronounced: ‘when the meal was over the priest rose from the table, swept out the house, and hunted out the souls of the dead like fleas with these words: “Ye have eaten and drunken, souls, now go, now go.”’ The reading Κῆρες was first shown to be the correct one by Dr.Crusius, Otto (Anal. Crit. ad Paroimiogr. p. 48Google Scholar) and is accepted by Dr.Rohde, (Psyche, 219Google Scholar).

page 106 note 1 Another variant of the same title or rather idea is given by Hesychius, and has not, I think, been cited: (Φρυγίης σώτειρα) σοὶ ποταμοὶ

page 106 note 2 Professor Percy Gardner has kindly allowed me to see a photograph of a vase recently acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, on which Pandora (inscribed) is represented as actually rising from the ground. Professor Gardner is about to publish the vase, so I only note here that it affords from the side of art a welcome confirmation of the identity, certain from literature, of Pandora and Ge.

page 107 note 1 It is worth noting that, according to Proclus, who doubtless follows some earlier tradition, Prometheus received the κρατέονται ἀεὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα from the Satyrs: ἐρημόπλανον Κορόβαντα αἰολόμορφον ἄνακτα, θεὸν διφυῆ πολύμορφον

page 111 note 1 It is unnecessary here (as my discussion of the Danaïdes is incidental) to reproduce the vase-paintings on which the myth is figured; but it may be noted that on black-figured vases, on which alone, so far as I am aware, the myth is figured, the Danaïdes pour their vessels into a huge φοίνιον αἱμαχθέντα κασιγνήτων ὑπὸ δισσῶν half buried in the earth. The fact that they are winged διφυῆ in one instance (Roscher, , Lex. 950Google Scholar) may point to some confusion with the εἶνε πολὐ διαβασμένο of the Pithoigia.

page 111 note 2 Since the above was written Dr. Verrall has kindly shown me his note on ‘The name Anthesteria’ (p. 115). It seems to me conclusive.

page 112 note 1 The obviously funereal connotation of the term Lenaia has given birth in Germany to the ‘Sarg-Dionysos.’ What precisely that may mean I do not know. The simple fact seems to be that Dionysos here and elsewhere took over a grave-yard, with its ghost and hero-cultus. His annexation of the old order is marked by his marriage with the wife of the the Archon Basileus in the Boukolion close to he Limnae precinct.

page 113 note 1 DrDörpfeld's, views on the position of τὰ ἔξω (Thucyd. ii. 15Google Scholar), which I follow, are fully stated in Ath. Mitth. xx. p. 161: ‘Das Lenaion oder Dionysion in den Limnai.’ In this article (p. 169) appears the plan of the newly discovered ληνός. Supplementary to this is an article in the same volume, p. 369: ‘Lenaion,’ which slightly modifies the relations between Lenaion and Dionysion ἐν Λίμναις.

page 114 note 1 It is suggested by Mr. R. A. Neil that the root which appears in Greek as θες (p. 115) may appear as fes, fer in the Latin, inferiae, inferius (inferium vinum Cato res rust. 134Google Scholar), arferius (arferia aqua quae inferis libabatur, sive vas vini quod sacris adhibebatur, Fest. s.v.), Feralia.

He suggests also that several Greek words showing the stem δīο may he for δīσο-, and identical with the Latin dīro- (dirus was originally a purely religious word): such words would be ἀποδιοπομπεῖσθαι (v. p. 104) (though the quantity of the ι is not determinable), Δīάσια (whatever the termination may be), the Δῖα of Teos and perhaps the Πάνδια of Athens.