GREEK FABLES
Pandora’s Box
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth. Zeus
ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her and he
did, using water and earth. The gods endowed her with many talents;
Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo music, and so forth. Hence her
name: Pandora means "all-gifted" in Greek.
When Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took vengeance
by presenting Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother. Zeus
also gave Pandora a sealed box, which she was not to open under
any circumstance. Moved by her natural curiosity, Pandora opened
the box. Little did she know that the box contained all of the evil in the
world. The evil contained escaped and spread over the earth. She
quickly tried to close the lid, but the whole contents of the box had
escaped, except for one thing which lay at the bottom, and that was
Hope.
Icarus
Icarus and his father were
trapped on the island of Crete.
Luckily, Icarus's father was a
talented
and
remarkable
Athenian craftsman. He fashioned
two pairs of wings out of wax and
feathers: one for himself and
another for his son.
Before they took off from the
island, Daedalus warned his son
not to fly too close to the sun, nor
too close to the sea. Overcome by
the happiness and freedom that
flying gave him, Icarus soared
through the sky curiously, but in
the process he came too close to
the sun. The wax in his wings
melted. As Icarus kept flapping his wings, he soon realized that he
had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And
so, Icarus fell into the sea and died.
Narcissus
Narcissus was a hunter who was famous for his beauty. He was
also exceptionally proud, in that he disdained [pitied / hated] those
who loved him. The gods saw this, and decided to punish Narcissus.
As divine punishment, he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool,
not realizing that it was just an image. He fell so in love with his own
image that he wasted away to death, not
being able to
leave the beauty of his own reflection.
Sisyphus
Sisyphus was famed as the
craftiest of men. He had even
won the confidence of the
gods,
becoming
knowledgeable about some of
Zeus’s secrets. However, his
confidence grew, and Sisyphus
began to consider himself as an equal to
the gods.
Zeus wanted to punish Sisyphus and order
Thanatos (Death) to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus
(Hell). Sisyphus cleverly asked Thanatos to demonstrate
how the chains worked, and when he did, Sisyphus secured
them around Thanatos’s wrists, trapping him in Tartarus. This caused
chaos since no human could die with Thanatos imprisoned.
Eventually Ares (who was annoyed that his battles had lost their fun
because his opponents would not die) got involved and freed
Thanatos.
As a punishment from the gods for his trickery and deception,
Zeus made a deal with Sisyphus; Sisyphus would have to roll a large
boulder up a steep hill, but if he reached the top of the hill with the
boulder, he would be released from the underworld.
What Sisyphus didn’t know was that the higher he rose on the
mountain, the heavier the boulder would become, and each time he
attempted to roll it to the top, it would roll back down, forcing him to
begin all over again. The maddening nature of the punishment was
reserved for Sisyphus due to his hubristic belief that his cleverness
surpassed that of Zeus. As a result Sisyphus was condemned to
repeat this task for all of eternity.