EVERYTHING BEGAN FROM FIRE.

I am the son of Iapetus and Clymene. My father was the son of Gaea and Uranus, my mother’s parents were Oceanus and Tethys. My brother was Epimetheus and his name meant, he who thinks after having taken action. Perhaps you know me on account of my love for mankind or, perhaps, on account of my unfortunate end.
My name means, he who thinks before taking action However, I have been accused of not having taken enough action when, after several attempts to fend off the terrible Zeus, I stole the element of fire so that I could give it to mankind.
I was chained to a rock in the desolate steppes of Scythia, my liver was devoured by an eagle and, thanks to being cursed by Olympios, my liver grew back every night only for the eagle to return the following day and inflict upon me once more this endless torment.
Why?

I have lived among the Titans, among the gods and yet not one of them has ever made me feel as if I were in the
right place. Only among men have I had this sensation. Their thirst for knowledge, their instinct, their constant desire to put themselves to the test and their reluctance to lower their heads before tyrants.
This is why I have striven to help them in any way I have been able. When it had to be decided what men should offer in sacrifice to the gods, I suggested to the men that they should put aside the better parts of the sacrificed animal, covered by its hide and to offer the gods the bones, covered by the fat. However, Zeus realised the deceit and he decided to punish both myself as well as mankind.
Thus, Zeus decided to have Hephaestus mould the figure of a mortal woman of the most sublime beauty and he invited all of the other gods to pay homage to her with a gift: courage, virtue, intelligence and inquisitiveness.
Zeus wanted to present the maiden with a final gift: a box which he recommended she must look after but never open. That young woman was Pandora (whose name, of course, means, all manner of gifts).

Zeus sent Pandora as a gift to my brother, Epimetheus who, so rash and impulsive as he was, fell in love with her instantly and made her his wife, despite my prayers to accept no gifts that hailed from the gods.
Pandora was a shrewd, knowledgeable, and inquisitive woman.
Her inquisitiveness had been given to her by the god Hermes. Her inquisitive nature teased her at first.
Then, it began to torment her, before, finally, consuming her. She was not able to not think about that box and about what it might contain. One day she decided to open it and she discovered what the punishment had been that Zeus had cruelly reserved for mankind: death, disease, hatred, jealousy, mendacity, and greed.
Terrified by her reckless gesture she closed up the box once more but inadvertently left hope inside it.
Until that moment men had been immortal and happy but, on account of all of the pain and suffering that had befallen them, they had become desperate, and so Pandora opened up the box for a second time. At that point, hope also fled the box and, in some way, managed to render all of the pain and suffering more bearable for mankind.

Pandora and Epimetheus had a daughter, Pyrrha, who married Deucalion, my son.
Indeed, when the terrible Zeus sent the great flood, the only two survivors were them: Pandora’s daughter and my son. Thus, they were able to bring into being a new generation of humans.
How was this ever possible?
Hermes had been sent by Zeus to ask Deucalion what he would have wished for after the flood and he answered that he would have desired the presence of other men by his side. Therefore, Hermes advised him to throw some stones over his shoulder.
From the stones thrown by Deucalion men would have been born.
From the stones thrown over Pyrrha’s shoulder women would have been born.
Lastly, a son, Hellen, was born, the forefather of the Graecians, the inhabitants of Hellas.

It all began from fire and the end of the story rediscovers this element, represented by hope.
After the great flood, the fire was no longer such a burning flame, but rather merely only embers. The embers of a predestined life, Pandora’s life, the embers left over from a disenchanted love, from a life half lived between the divine and the earthly.

Nevertheless, Pandora was still able to decide how to manage her own destiny.