Summary
According to Greek myth, Pandora was the first human woman - moulded from the earth by Hephaestus on the instruction of Zeus himself.
We've all heard of Pandora's box, but in actual fact it was no such thing. Instead it was a jar containing all the evils of humanity, but even these contents of the jar are up for debate! So what is real story behind this often misunderstood, misinterpreted and maligned figure?
In this episode Tristan is joined by esteemed author, broadcaster, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes to discover the truth about the first woman of Ancient Greek mythology.
Natalie's book Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths is available on Amazon here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in |
| 0:18.8 | today's podcast we're talking again about Greek mythology about a woman from |
| 0:22.7 | Greek mythology. We're talking all about Pandora, the first human woman according |
| 0:28.7 | to the Greek myths. But what do these stories tell us about Pandora? What's this |
| 0:33.9 | whole story behind the box? And why should we not think that there was a box? |
| 0:38.2 | But instead that there was a jar. What to explain all? I would like to get back on |
| 0:43.6 | the podcast, the steam door, the classicist, comedian, broadcaster, Natalie |
| 0:49.7 | Haynes. Natalie was on the podcast a few months back to talk all about Helen |
| 0:53.3 | of Troy. Here she is again to explain all about Pandora and the story of Pandora's jar. |
| 0:59.6 | So that further ado to explain all about Pandora, here's Natalie. |
| 1:04.0 | Natalie, great to have you on the podcast. It's my pleasure. Now Pandora, we've all heard |
| 1:15.8 | Pandora, we've all heard of Pandora's box. I'm vexed by this but yeah. Exactly, but the |
| 1:22.3 | story is actually a bit more complicated than that isn't it? It is. I'm afraid. So |
| 1:26.1 | Pandora doesn't get a box until they're rasmus. So 2000 years after the earliest |
| 1:30.7 | versions of her story to survive to us, which are in Hesiod, in both he writes |
| 1:34.8 | about her twice in the The ugly and the works and dates. And in the shorter |
| 1:38.9 | version, in the The ugly, probably the earlier version, he doesn't make any |
| 1:42.0 | mention of her having any kind of receptacle at all, just describes her being |
| 1:45.4 | created, which is by far and away the most important thing about her, the ancient, |
| 1:49.6 | and every single visual representation of Pandora to survive to us today. She's |
| 1:54.8 | shown in the act of being created rather than holding any kind of receptacle. |
| 1:59.5 | The important thing for the ancients is that she is the first woman before |
... |
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