School-Gymnasia #31

Prepared by Maryna Scheka, a pupil of 7“A” form

Kirovohrad – 2013

Teacher : Svitlana Mykhailivna Dyka

Title: “Pandora’s Box” (From Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece) Author: the ancient Greeks Genre: a myth

Content: There were two brothers , the Titans Epimetheus and

Prometheus, in Ancient Greece . They upset Zeus, the most powerful of all gods. Zeus decided to punish the two brothers and invented a very cunning plan. He created from clay a beautiful woman Pandora who was both charming and deceitful.

Epimetheus felt in love with Pandora and he agreed to marry her. Zeus gave Pandora a beautiful box as a wedding gift and said her never open it.

But Pandora did, expecting to see gold and treasure there. And Zeus had packed the box full of all terrible evils he could ever think of, so Pandora released them all upon the world. The woman frightened and closed the box, but she could still hear a voice calling her from the box, pleading with her to be let out.

When her husband Epimetheus came home he agreed that nothing inside the box could be worth than the horrors she had already been released. Epimetheus and Pandora opened the lid once more. All that remained in the box was Hope and they allowed it to follow pain and suffering, misery and death, diseases and other sadnesses.

Thus Pandora’s curiosity brought humanity a whole heap of trouble, but she had also allowed Hope to follow them.

Do you know that the story of Pandora’s Box is one of the most well-known tales of Greek Mythology?Has your curiosity ever got you into trouble?

Have an attentive look at the following “Word Cloud”. Put its words in the right order and you’ll read a famous English proverb about

curiosity.

Yes, this is the English proverb “Curiosity killed the cat”.

What does it mean?

Conclusion

Nowadays the expression “Pandora’s box” means a source

of troubles. Whenwe 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 and which

may be the conse –quences of our actions! There are two moral lessons which we can take from this

myth. The first one is that while being curious can be a good thing, it is also

important to remember the lesson of Pandora and a famous English proverb

“Curiosity killed the cat”. Don’t let you curiosity get the better of you! Another lesson is that there are bad things that happen in

the world, but there are good ones, too. This myth reminds us that Hope is a

very real forcewhich can change our lives and the world around us. That’s why

we should never lose the spirit of hope!

Sources:

Pandora's Box - http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/;

http://www.wordle.net