THE MYTH OF PANDORA

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS . FRAMED . 43 INCHES x 36 INCHES
Tiger cub
Tiger cub Tiger cub

-INSPIRATION-


I had just comeback from the grocery store, having routinely sanitized everything I bought, I slumped onto the sofa and scrolled through Instagram. A meme piqued my interest, heading a renaissance-like painting of a girl read ‘2020 started like this – Hey guys it’s your girl Pandora, welcome to your unboxing video’. An unwilling smile crept on to my face. My mild obsession with Greek mythology reminded me that Pandora was the first woman and thereby according to archaic Greek texts my long-lost ancestor. If the ancient Greeks were still around, I bet they would blame her for this pandemic. Unfortunately, since she was probably quite dead at this point her descendants- all of womankind would be accused. As I picked the flaky skin on my hands, I couldn’t help but find this extremely unfair. Surely, I must have missed something. I found the English translations of Hesiod’s works where Pandora was mentioned – ‘The Theogony’ and ‘Work and Days’ to paint a better picture in my head. I got the picture but I wasn’t sure if it was better.

Hesiod’s Pandora can be best described as the original evil temptress. Pandora in Greek means all endowed, which make sense because all the Greek gods endow her with various facets. However, the use of the word endow here might be dubious as some of the gifts include – shameless mind, deceitful nature and the ability to lie. Despite her now infamous curiosity, Hesiod’s telling of the tale shows no implication that she is unaware of the contents of the pithos (which is a jar not box). When Zeus offers her to humanity, specifically to the titan Epimetheus, he is unable to decline because of her beauty despite being warned by his brother. One part of the myth that modern adaptations and meme that I came across did get right is that she unleashes a bunch of evil spirits onto earth punishing mankind.

Fascinated by the myth I decided to paint my own take on it. Given the current circumstances I wanted to focus on the evil spirit of disease (called nosoi). I found a modern interpretation of the nosoi in a game called Pathfinder, where the nosoi are depicted as birds wearing plague masks. I adopted this idea and painted the nosoi in different colors to display the wide array of diseases that plague humanity. For Pandora I adopted a version of her I could see myself in. Finally, I painted the pithos with a white phoenix (representing hope) perched on it. The original myth said hope remained as it was restrained by the will of Zeus. Realistically, hope doesn’t always remain, it can be flighty. The pithos and Pandora are on two opposite ends of the canvas as I believe that Pandora was framed. This is because the unleashing of the spirits doesn’t only plague mankind but some would argue to a larger degree plague womankind. Given that it was established that Pandora was shameless and deceitful she would have no problem looking out for herself, it would make little sense that she would inflict misery upon herself. The background is covered in clouds that are a part of Zeus’s domain, who I think is the real culprit.

Image of Nosoi from Pathfinder: Kingmaker English Translations of Hesiod’s Work and Days and Theogony