Editing Pandora (section)

===''Theogony''===
The Pandora myth first appeared in lines 560–612 of Hesiod's poem in [[Dactylic hexameter|epic meter]], the ''[[Theogony]]'' (c. 8th–7th centuries BCE), without ever giving the woman a name. After humans received the stolen gift of fire from [[Prometheus]], an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands [[Hephaestus]] to mold from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the human race. After Hephaestus does so, [[Athena]] dresses her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, [[Clothing in ancient Greece|garlands]], and an ornate crown of silver. This woman goes unnamed in the ''Theogony'', but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in ''Works and Days''. When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. But she was "sheer guile, not to be withstood by men." Hesiod elaborates (590–93):

<blockquote><poem>For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:585-616 590&ndash;593].</ref></poem></blockquote>

Hesiod goes on to lament that men who try to avoid the evil of women by avoiding marriage will fare no better (604–7):

<blockquote><poem>[He] reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:585-616 604&ndash;607].</ref></poem></blockquote>

Hesiod concedes that occasionally a man finds a good wife, but still (609) "evil contends with good."