Long ago and far away, high up among the clouds on Mount Olympus, the gods enjoyed a life of joy and quarrels. When they grew tired of arguing among themselves, they turned their attention to humans and used them as toys.
One day, the gods created a beautiful woman named Pandora and took her to Prometheus. He knew that the gods were angry with him because he had stolen fire from them and given it to humans. Prometheus was afraid that the gods were trying to trick him to get their own back, and he decided to ignore her.
But his brother, Epimetheus, fell in love with the beautiful Pandora and decided to marry her. The couple lived happily together until… one day, Mercury, the messenger of the gods, arrived with a mysterious box. He asked Pandora and her husband to take care of it while he was away. Before he left, he made them promise never to look inside it.
For days, Pandora couldn’t stop thinking about the box. She constantly wondered what was inside; could it be full of sparkling jewels, glamorous dresses, golden coins? When Epimetheus was away, and no one was around, Pandora would look more closely at the box. But one day, when Epimetheus was out hunting, she couldn’t bear it anymore; her curiosity overcame her. Making sure she was not being watched, she sneaked up to the box and carefully unlocked it. Slowly, she lifted the lid and looked inside.
But to her surprise, there were no sparkling jewels, glamorous dresses, golden coins—instead, the gods had filled the box with all the evils that humanity now knows. Disease, misery, and death. Pandora screamed and screamed in pain and fear. Epimetheus heard her cries as he rode into the yard. He leapt from his horse and ran to her aid. As he took her in his arms, he comforted her as the evil flew out of the castle and spread over the land.
Between her sobs, Pandora and Epimetheus heard a tiny little voice calling from the box. “Let me out! Let me out!” Believing that nothing inside the box could be worse than the horrors that had been released, they opened the lid again.
Left was only a small, crumpled butterfly trembling in the corner. Slowly, it unfolded its sparkling wings and brushed them against Pandora, healing her wounds. The beautiful butterfly was Hope, which Mercury had hidden among the evils, having pity on humanity when he realized what the gods had planned.
