IV.

PANDORA.

The daring offspring of Iapetus
Brought fire to the nations by a wicked fraud.
After fire was stolen from the
Celestial home, wasting disease and a new troop
Of fevers brooded over the earth,
And the slow necessity of death,
Once far removed, quickened its pace.
original: "Audax Japeti genus / Ignem fraude malâ gentibus intulit. / Post ignem æthereâ domo / Subductum, macies & nova febrium / Terris incubuit cohors, / Semotique prius tarda necessitas / Lethi corripuit gradum." — Horace, Odes, Book I, Ode 3.

AFTER Prometheus, son of Iapetus and Clymene, had formed the first men out of earth and water, he climbed a mountain with the help of Minerva. From there, having approached the chariot of the sun, he set out to steal the heavenly fire, which he brought back to earth hidden 1 in a birch-wood stalk The Dutch text uses "berkenhouten stok" (birch-wood stick), though the author clarifies in the notes this refers to the giant fennel (narthex) used in Greek myth.. With this, he gave life to the men he had formed. Jupiter, 2 who was already angry with him, could not endure this new misdeed. Furthermore, he was jealous of Prometheus's handiwork, which is why he determined to bring upon mankind the punishment he had planned. He then took a box and enclosed within it Old Age, Sickness, War, Strife, Care, Deceit, Slander, and Envy—in a word, all the Vices and Evils which he intended to send upon the earth. To better show his revenge to men, he wished to punish them through that very man to whom they owed the divine fire that animated them. But to deceive Prometheus, a trick was necessary; Vulcan was ordered to make a woman out of clay and to use all his art to give the creation a ravishing beauty. Having completed this, Jupiter gathered all the Gods of Olympus and commanded them to endow this woman with the most precious gifts. This scene depicts all the Gods seated around her, each competing to fulfill the command of the angry God. From this comes the name 3 Pandora, which means "Gift of all the Gods," and it was given to her because the Gods had bestowed all their gifts upon her. Thus enriched and adorned, Jupiter placed the fatal box in her hands, in which all miseries were enclosed, and so he sent her into the world. She went to Prometheus, who mistrusted the gift and refused to accept it. But his brother 4 Epimetheus was not so cautious;

1. ENCLOSED IN A BIRCH-WOOD STALK.] This is a plant about three feet high. The bark is very hard, but the inside has a pith which is consumed by fire only very slowly. Sailors use it to carry fire from one island to another. The Greeks called it Narthex, and the Latins Ferula. Mr. de Tournefort gave a description of it (a) in his Voyage to the Levant.
2. ALREADY ANGRY WITH HIM.] The cause of this will be seen in the following discourse.

3. PANDORA.] This is what her name means in Greek; Pandora, from pan and dora, which is to say, provided with all gifts.
4. EPIMETHEUS.] He was the son of Iapetus and Clymene, and the brother of Prometheus and Atlas. The bloody wars of the princes among his kin forced him to seek safety in foreign lands. By Pandora he had a daughter named Pyrrha, who was the wife of Deucalion. His name shows his little foreknowledge or foresight: for it means someone who knows matters only after they have happened In contrast to Prometheus, whose name means "forethought.". Mr. (b) Le Clerc believes that he is the same as Gog, whose name...

(a) Tournefort, Voyage to the Levant, Vol. 2. (b) To Hesiod, Theogony, line 510.