Pandora's box.
May. 26th, 2004 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I went through a time where I was obsessed with Greek and Roman (And Norse) mythology. Actually had quite a good book on it... not very long, but very concise, and it covered the important ones very well. Anyway, I've just been thinking about the story of Pandora's Box Jar.
As we all know, Pandora (all gifts) was sent to humanity as payback for some crime (I think it was the theft of fire by Prometheus (foresight), but I could be wrong). And she was sent with a jar and told not to open it, but her curiosity got the better of her and she ended up releasing all the bad things from the jar into the world. In some versions, she manages to close the jar before the last monster, foreknowledge, escapes, and in others, the last thing out of the jar is hope.
For years, I thought the latter version made no sense. Why on earth would there be something good lurking at the bottom of this sea of monsters? And hope is a form of ignorance about the future, you don't know what bad things are happening, so you can feel good. It's almost the complete opposite of foreknowledge. But I've had a thought that maybe I've had it wrong the whole time. Hope wasn't a good thing, it's the worst monster. Because we're hopeful, we are knocked down harder by all the terrible things in this world. And then, even though we should just give up and go home we can't, because we've got that hope that things will be better. Just another cruel joke played on humanity.
As we all know, Pandora (all gifts) was sent to humanity as payback for some crime (I think it was the theft of fire by Prometheus (foresight), but I could be wrong). And she was sent with a jar and told not to open it, but her curiosity got the better of her and she ended up releasing all the bad things from the jar into the world. In some versions, she manages to close the jar before the last monster, foreknowledge, escapes, and in others, the last thing out of the jar is hope.
For years, I thought the latter version made no sense. Why on earth would there be something good lurking at the bottom of this sea of monsters? And hope is a form of ignorance about the future, you don't know what bad things are happening, so you can feel good. It's almost the complete opposite of foreknowledge. But I've had a thought that maybe I've had it wrong the whole time. Hope wasn't a good thing, it's the worst monster. Because we're hopeful, we are knocked down harder by all the terrible things in this world. And then, even though we should just give up and go home we can't, because we've got that hope that things will be better. Just another cruel joke played on humanity.
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Date: 2004-05-26 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 06:08 pm (UTC)*ducks and runs*
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Date: 2004-05-26 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 11:19 am (UTC)Still I suppose that hope, even though it has the potential to be hurtful, drags us on long after going on stopped making sense, or helps to knoch us down even harder, still also has that good side of not throwing things away after they go wrong. It's a two-edged sword, certainly, and relying completely on hope is just as dangerous as completely giving in to hate...
But it sort of reminds me of that optimist/ pessimist thing, about how optimists can be disappointed whereas pessimists can only be surprised for the better: It doesn't work that simple. The pessimist, even if "surprised by the better", will still fear danger behind that good, and probably not enjoy it at all because he's hopeless: If good things happen, they're only a build-up for a bigger evil in his mind. Hope works the other way round: even if bad things happen, they may still be followed by better things. And whether cruelty lies rather in hoping for a bright future that never comes (sort of like foresight through the notorious pink glasses) than in giving up to despair and lying down to die - well, I suppose it's a question of interpretation, really...
no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 06:08 pm (UTC)*ducks and runs*
no subject
Date: 2004-05-26 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-27 11:19 am (UTC)Still I suppose that hope, even though it has the potential to be hurtful, drags us on long after going on stopped making sense, or helps to knoch us down even harder, still also has that good side of not throwing things away after they go wrong. It's a two-edged sword, certainly, and relying completely on hope is just as dangerous as completely giving in to hate...
But it sort of reminds me of that optimist/ pessimist thing, about how optimists can be disappointed whereas pessimists can only be surprised for the better: It doesn't work that simple. The pessimist, even if "surprised by the better", will still fear danger behind that good, and probably not enjoy it at all because he's hopeless: If good things happen, they're only a build-up for a bigger evil in his mind. Hope works the other way round: even if bad things happen, they may still be followed by better things. And whether cruelty lies rather in hoping for a bright future that never comes (sort of like foresight through the notorious pink glasses) than in giving up to despair and lying down to die - well, I suppose it's a question of interpretation, really...