Long ago on Mt. Olympus Zeus, the king of gods, was very angry with Prometheus who stole fire and gave it to people. Zeus thought that fire should only be the priviledge of gods and so he decided to punish all human kind.

He ordered Hephaestus to create the first mortal woman out of clay. Each god endowed her with gifts. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Athena gave her the art of weaving, Poseidon gave her a pearl necklace to prevent her from drowning, Apollo gave her the art of singing and of playing the lyre, Mercury gave her a cunning, deceitful mind and a crafty tongue. Zeus gave her a foolish and idle nature and his wife, Hera, gave her curiosity. The woman's name was Pandora, meaning "she who bears all the gifts"! 

Mercury, the messenger god, took Pandora to earth to be presented to Epimetheus, Promitheus' half-brother. He also gave her a special gift from Zeus himself. It was a gilded and intricately carved box with an explicit warning that she must never open it under any circumstances!

Epimetheus had been told by his brother never to accept any gift from Zeus. However, one look at Pandora was enough to make him fall crazy in love with her and marry her! To congratulate them, Mercury came to the wedding ceremony and told Epimetheus that Pandora was a gift from Zeus, a peace-offer signifying that there were no more ill feelings between the chief of the gods and Prometheus. He also told Epimetheus that the gilded box of Pandora was a wedding gift from the Olympian King.

The days were passing quickly and the two were leading a happy, married life but one thought was still at the back of Pandora's mind: what was in the box that Zeus had given her? She kept thinking that maybe the box had money in it, nice clothes or even jewellery. Hera's gift of curiosity had worked and one day she decided to have just a brief look inside. When nobody was around, she lifted the lid only for a while. Before she knew it, there was a hissing sound and a horrible odour permeated the air around her. Terrified, she slammed the lid down but it was too late.

Pandora had released all the wickedness and malevolence that Zeus had locked into the box. In that gilded box, Zeus had hidden  everything that would plague man forever: sickness, death, turmoil, strife, jealousy, hatred, famine, passion, war... 

Pandora was scared, because she saw all the evil spirits coming out and tried to close the box as fast as possible, closing Hope inside.

Hope indeed stayed inside because that was Zeus’ will; he wanted to let people suffer in order to understand that they should not disobey their gods. 

The Box was full of evils of all kinds. False Hope can be an evil. People can “Hope” all they want, but they can't just stand waiting without doing something about it. So, people know in their hearts that Hope together with action is the best way forward in order to overcome difficulties and the evils of the world.