Is hope evil? It was in Pandora’s box of evils?

What was it doing there, unless it is an evil in disguise? Prometheus gets the wrath of the Gods by giving mankind fire. Epimethius, his brother, is rewarded by being given Pandora as wife. Prometheus is “forethought”, and Epimethius means after thought. Pandora means, “All gifts”. Yet one of the gifts she is given is overweening curiosity. This leads to her opening the box Epimethius had promised to guard. That releases all the evils that beset humanity to this day. But at the bottom of the box was hope. Was this a metaphor to tell us that despite all evil, hope remains? Or is it a metaphor that tells us hope is as evil as any other negative thought or emotion that plagues humanity?

A number of different interpretations would be possible and I don’t remember all the details of the story, but I would lean toward the following interpretation:

Pandora’s box is in the subconscious. Curiosity leads to the discovery of all gifts.They are all double-edged and can be used positively or negatively. In discovering gifts, both possibilities occur. Otherwise there is just innocence.

Fire is one gift. Fire is associated with change and experience, which can be rapid and volatile and dangerous, or just softly and stably warming. Man can effect change, but it can go against God. Nevertheless, the experience and memory and associated developed gifts are stored in the subconscious. Forethought results in actions being taken, and the storing occurring. Afterthought leads to reflection, but the subconscious can be ignored. A female aspect is empathy and associated caring about the effects of wrong decisions about how to apply gifts. This leads to curiosity about what more can be done. This leads back to exploring the subconscious, meeting all the gifts and associated evils that lurk there, but in passing through and beyond these, there is the discovery that all evil can be resolved and cleared. This results in hope, more trust, that all evil can/will diminish and disappear except in so far as the gifts of the Gods keep coming into being.

That’s kind of an internal interpretation. The external interpretation would be the box being kept closed internally, but opened out into the world, so all the gifts and evils are just subconsciously held, and in ignorance released into the external world and flying around and back there.

Prometheus stole the fire. That’s kind of an ego thing, desire to effect change without regard for whether action to effect change is OK with the gods.

“Pandora’s Box” Procul Harum song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlFPmHaXO9E seems to suggest some elements of subconscious.

Open Pandora – Nintendo 64 – Starfox 64

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