Imagine a time, many many years ago, when there was no unhappiness or illness or anger in the world. A time when no-one ever hurt themselves or grew too old. And because no man envied his neighbor, there were no fights or wars or killing. A time when there was plenty of everything for everyone, and no greed.
Husbands and wives never quarreled. That was why Pandora and Epimetheus were content to always be together - dancing, feasting, playing games and sleeping in the sunshine of a year-long spring.
An unkind person would have said that Pandora was spoiled. But then there was no-one unkind to say it, and Epimetheus loved to shower her with presents. Every day he brought her a new dress or some sandals or jewels or a statue for the garden.
His search for presents took him farther and farther away from the house each day. Pandora was left on her own, wandering the rooms of the sunny villa.
One day, though, he came home with something large and square, wrapped in a cloth. It was a dusty old box, fastened with latches and tied round with a golden cord.
"What is it?" laughed Pandora, dancing round the box. "It’s a present for me, isn’t it?"
"No Pandora, it isn’t," said her husband firmly. "This box was given to me by the god Mercury for safe keeping. I promised him I would never open it, whatever happened. He said I would be sorry for ever if I did."
"Oh please let me have a look. Just a little look!"
"No, Pandora! It is not our box. We must respect Mercury’s wishes. Now leave it alone."
But next day, when Epimetheus went out, Pandora found herself thinking more and more about the box. Her footsteps took her back to it over and over again, then her fingertips stroked the dusty latches and the golden cord.
"I wonder what’s in it," she thought. "I think Epimetheus was joking about Mercury. It is a present for me, after all. Besides, he made the promise - I didn’t. It wouldn’t hurt just to have a little look, surely." Her fingers began unfastening the knot in the cord. She stopped herself just in time.
She busied herself with a hundred little jobs around the villa. But by afternoon, she could bear it no longer. She untied the cord ... and flicked up the catches.
Immediately a small murmuring sound came from the box - like the wings of a butterfly fluttering against a closed window. "Oh it’s some dear little creature! I can’t leave it shut up in there!"
Pandora threw back the lid.
But inside there was only a jar, sealed with wax and smothered in dust. Sounds were coming from inside it - and they were growing louder.
"If I break the seal," she thought, "Epimetheus will know I’ve peeped inside." So, she closed the box and again tried to ignore it.
But oh, how she longed to know what was in the jar! She paced the room, turning again and again to look at the box. The as if in a dream, she found herself beside the open box, brushing the dust off the mysterious jar.
"Pandora! Pandora! Please let us out!" whimpered a chorus of tiny voices from inside the jar.
Pandora burned with curiosity. She bit her lip. "But I mustn’t, I mustn’t! My husband said...."
"What does Epimetheus know? Please, please let us out. The world needs us. The world isn’t complete without us!"
The temptation was too strong for Pandora to resist. She quickly scratched away the wax seal.
Out flew the stopper, forced from the neck of the jar by a hideous black hornet. Its sting dripped poison. In its buzz was the word: Death.
Another leather-winged insect, Fear, with staring eyes, followed it, murmuring. Then a blistered bug crawled out of the neck of the jar, and its trail of slime wrote the word: Disease on the floor.
A gnat, the color of frost, flew out of the window and blighted the garden wherever it settled with thorns and weeds, blacktop and caterpillars. Its whine seemed to say: Hunger!
Pandora desperately tried to put back the stopper, but a flying beetle from the jar pricked her wrist with its sharp sting and cried, "You can’t stop us now, you foolish woman. We are all the evil things your world has never known - a present from the gods, who envy your happiness. I am Old Age!"
The stopper in Pandora’s hand seemed suddenly too heavy to lift, and she saw on the back of her arm the crinkles and brown blotches of age. In the bronze mirror she saw a wrinkled face and hair powdered with gray.
The cold blast of Winter escaped from the jar and spat on her until she was shivering with cold.
With one last great effort, Pandora forced back the stopper and slammed the lid of the box - but not until Worry, Anger and Jealousy had swarmed past her. Stinging and biting, they flew out of the door, down the path and settled on the head of Epimetheus as he came home.
He dragged his wife to her feet and slapped her furiously. "You wicked, disobedient, stupid, selfish woman!" he raged. "I told you not to open the box. Why can’t you ever do as you’re told?"
And Pandora, who had never known or even imagined such unkindness, felt tears well up in her eyes for the very first time. Unhappiness too, had escaped.
From the street outside came the sound of fighting, crying and terror. The whole lovely world seemed to have turned horrible, ugly and wicked.
Then Pandora heard a single, tiny voice from inside the terrible jar. "Pandora! Pandora! Don’t leave me in here all alone! The world needs me! The world is not complete without me!"
"You won’t trick me again!" sobbed Pandora, throwing herself across the lid of the box.
"But I can help you. Let me out! Oh, please let me out!" The voice sounded almost as unhappy as Pandora herself. At last she begged Epimetheus to stand farther away, threw open the lid of the box, and once again took the stopper out of the jar.
Out flew a fragile wisp of white, like the smallest of moths. The very sight of it cheered Pandora a little. Then it settled on her face, and her heart seemed to lift. "And what pretty sort of wickedness are you?" she asked.
"I am Hope," purred the small, winged creature, and away it blew to do battle with all the hideous evils. It brought the promise of Spring to the wintry garden, and dried many of the world’s tears. In going, it brushed against the cheek of Epimetheus.
On her knees, Pandora asked him through her tears, "Will the world ever forgive me?"
Her husband looked at her for a long time and then gave the smallest of smiles. "I hope so," he said softly. "I hope so."
Story Time � 1984-1989 by Rubicon Press CC