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 |  Featured Business Profile: Dr. Lena Hatzichronoglou  The Meaning Behind the Words "Pandora's Box" Then and Now Grosse Pointe, Michigan Dr. Lena Hatzichronoglou knows the secret to "The Meaning Behind the Words." During a recent lecture she gave at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial she revealed her passion for life as well as her deep love and appreciation for the Greek past. Having taught the Classics throughout her academic career, she has made it her mission to demonstrate that, the ancient literature is extremely important not only as a field of advanced studies, but even more so as the guiding force, which can inform and illuminate our experience in the here and now. Her recent lecture focused on the story behind "Pandora's Box" and its relevance for the world of today. Pandora's story, she said, is a very old one, but the earliest recorded versions of it come from the eighth century B.C. as they are found in Hesiod's Greek epics Theogony and Works and Days. Yet, despite its age, Pandora's story remains alive and well in our language and culture. In the first part of her presentation, Hatzichronoglou showed how Pandora's name is still incredibly alive not only in the phrase "You opened Pandora's Box," or in books of Mythology, but also in feminism and ideas, in publications, astronomy, science fiction, opera and drama, movies, CDs, magazines and periodicals, websites, video games, jewelry, computer programs. Then, quoting the text of Hesiod, Hatzichronoglou proceeded in telling the story of Pandora. Prometheus (he who thinks ahead), the creator of humans, stole fire from Zeus in order to protect them. But Zeus, in anger, not only did he punish Prometheus; he also devised to punish men by having the gods create a WOMAN. This woman was Pandora (all gifts), who, according to Hesiod, was the first woman ever created. By Zeus' ill intent, she was endowed by the gods with multiple gifts but also with terrible vices. She was sent to Epimetheus (he who thinks after the fact), Prometheus' brother, to be his wife. In spite of the fact that Epimetheus had been warned by his brother never to receive anything form Zeus, he did accept Pandora, but "when he already had in his possession the evil thing he understood". For, the "woman", opened the box out of which all human miseries escaped; but hope remained inside. Before that, people lived in bliss, free from evil and hardship. But this story, as Hesiod tells it, raises multiple questions and leaves us uncertain and perplexed, Hatzichronoglou said. For if men lived happily without Pandora, and if Pandora was the first woman ever created "from her comes the destructive race of women", the question is: How did men multiply in their bliss without women? On the other hand, if Zeus' intention was to punish humans by introducing Pandora how could she be blamed for showing up the way the gods intended her to be? In addition, what was the box all about? Who was its owner and how did it appear there? Why was Pandora blamed for opening it since Hesiod does not indicate anywhere that Pandora was instructed to keep it shut? Why was "hope" in the box with the evils, and what are we to make of it? To explain these conflicting accounts, Hatzichronoglou placed Hesiod's story within the cultural context of the ancient Greek Literature in general, and of the Patriarchal System in particular, whose conflicting ideas are still affecting our world. She explained, that Hesiod's text is not unique in its view of "the woman" as being a "beautiful, deceitful evil" which is not to be trusted. For similar ideas are also to be found in Homer, Simonides of Amorgos, Euripides, and even in the book of Genesis of the old Testament, whose second chapter is at least as old as the epics of Homer or even older than that. But what if Pandora, as her name (all gifts) indicates, may have not been the instrument of destruction, as Hesiod presents her, but rather the first woman indeed, an Earth Goddess, who herself gifted the world with grace, and nourishment, and love, and wonder, as an old matriarchal tradition would have it? We cannot answer these questions with certainty, Hatzichronoglou concluded, but looking closely at these stories can sharpen our vision and make us see more clearly the reflection of our own conflicting beliefs and ideas; it can help us understand that the evil we see in the OTHER is nothing but the other half of ourselves which, up until now, we had never owned or recognized; it can help us see that everything in Life is a gift- a PANDORA- even when it appears to be negative, and this can help us approach the challenges of our own tumultuous world in a new, empowered way; and, finally - out of the fragments of our own selves- it can help us create a WHOLENESS we had never imagined possible. Dr. Lena Hatzichronoglou is a professor of Classics, public speaker, and the founder and owner of Hellenic Visions. Join her for an exciting, fun learning, trip to Greece in July of 2006. She can be contacted through www.hellenicvisions.com. |  |