Prometheus And Pandora: The Link Between Hope And Eternal Misery
In Hesiod’s Works and Days, lines 81-105, Pandora releases thousands of evils into the world, as forced by Zeus. Surrounding the world was suffering, pain, disease, hardships, all griefs but one, hope. Pandora shut the lid before hope could escape.
Pandora is depicted as the bringer of evil to mankind throughout the poem, but she could also be the bringer of something good, something that gives her name “All-gift” a true meaning, hope. Through the depiction of hope and evil in the ‘Prometheus and Pandora’ passage, Hesiod suggests that hope is an evil, but it is not clear. This makes the reader question whether or not hope is a positive or negative quality, and if it is good or bad that it stayed in the jar. Is it being protected in the jar, or is it being withheld from mankind? There’s the pessimist and the optimist version of this myth, one where Zeus isn’t an all powerful tyrant who destroyed mankind and left them without hope, and one where he is, and it can be argued both ways. explain that we’re gonna be talking about both but focusing on the evidence of hope being a good thing but it being taken away from humans as further torment - OR - it is a bad thing, which is why it was tied in with other evils, and its good that’s it stayed in the jar because while there is all this torment in the world, zeus figured there’s no need for people to hope for a better future when it will never come - he wants us to know our misery is coming.
Firstly, in Pandora’s passage, hope is hinted at being another one of the evils in the jar, and while it was left behind, there were still thousands more. If the hope was indeed an evil, it should be a good thing that it stayed in the jar. Introduce the quote, “write the quote”. In addition, talk a bit about the secondary quote. Introduce a secondary quote, “write the quote”. Therefore, On the other hand, to humans, hope has always been seen as conventionally good, so the fact that it was trapped in the jar would just be more torment for mankind. Introduce the quote, “write the quote”. Moreover, talk a bit about the secondary quote. Introduce the secondary quote, “write the quote”. Finally, hope is in fact a good thing, but it is not further torment that is stayed in the jar because the deeper meaning of the jar represents the person. (reword). Introduce the quote, “write the quote”.
In conclusion, while the hope was with the evil, it can be argued that hope was the one good thing to come from Pandora’s box. Possibly the hope is being withheld, until humans deserve it. Zeus destroys the silver age because he doesn’t believe the humans were good yet, and he created the bronze age. It is possible that he did something similar with the jar, as he is going to withhold the hope until he believes the humans are good enough, and it could be possibly an untold story in a later age. Life isn’t hopeless but people are just hopelessly human. They will work, catch diseases, age, and suffer until they die.
