Pandora | Victoria Olt

2020

Handmade watercolor on paper

18 x 24 in
46 x 61 cm + frame included for free in shipments within Estonia

Pandora was the first woman to be built out of clay by the Gods of Olympus. Not only was she created by the Gods she also received many gifts from the Gods, like femininity, curiosity, beauty will and many more. The name Pandora means “All Endowed”. Despite all that, she was actually made as a punishment on mankind for accepting the fire, which Prometheus brought them. So it happened, that Pandora was given to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, as a bride. Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gifts offered by the Gods, but Epimetheus was so taken by the loveliness of Pandora that he forgot all that. As a wedding gift, the Gods gave Pandora a jar (or a chest in some variations of the story) and warned her never to open it. As Pandora had been gifted a curious mind, so the temptation of jar proved too much for her. Once she opened the jar, all the illnesses and hardships burst out of the jar. Pandora tried to close the lid and only one “gift” got trapped in the jar. That gift was hope, which is why hope is the last thing to die in man. Pandora has often been called the Eve of Greek Mythology, because similarly to Eve, she was both the first woman and the cause of all hardship and illness in the world.