Editing Pandora (section)

==19th century drama==
Over the course of the 19th century, the story of Pandora was interpreted in radically different ways by four dramatic authors in four countries. In two of these she was presented as the bride of Epimetheus; in the two others she was the wife of Prometheus. The earliest of these works was the lyrical dramatic fragment by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], written between 1807 and 1808.<ref>Goethe, ''Verse Plays and Epic'', Princeton University 1887, [https://books.google.com/books?id=D60IBA7_IQAC pp.209-246]</ref> Though it bears the title ''Pandora'', what exists of the play revolves round Epimetheus' longing for the return of the wife who has abandoned him and has yet to arrive. A biographer has argued that it is a philosophical transformation of Goethe's passion in old age for a teenaged girl.<ref>[[Albert Bielschowsky]], ''The Life of Goethe'', ch.XIII "Pandora" [https://books.google.com/books?id=eenWqWMU-zIC&dq=Pandora+poem&pg=PA388 pp.388-404]</ref>

[[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s ''The Masque of Pandora'' dates from 1876. It begins with her creation, her refusal by Prometheus and acceptance by Epimetheus. Then in the latter's house an "oaken chest, Carven with figures and embossed with gold" attracts her curiosity. After she eventually gives in to temptation and opens it, she collapses in despair and a storm destroys the garden outside. When Epimetheus returns, she begs him to kill her but he accepts joint responsibility.<ref>''The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems'', Boston 1876, [https://archive.org/details/masqueofpandorao00long/page/11 <!-- quote=Pandora Longfellow. --> pp.3-54]</ref> The work was twice used as the basis for operas by [[Alfred Cellier]] in 1881 and by [[Eleanor Everest Freer]] in 1933.<ref>[[Margaret Ross Griffel]], ''Operas in English: A Dictionary'', Scarecrow Press 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8bQAwAAQBAJ&dq=Alfred+Cellier++%22%22Pandora%22&pg=PA309 p.309]</ref> Iconographical elements from the masque also figure in Walter Crane's large [[watercolour]] of Pandora of 1885. She is pictured as sprawled over a carved wooden chest on which are embossed golden designs of the [[Moirai|three fates]] who figure as a chorus in Longfellow's scene 3. Outside the palace, a high wind is bending the trees. But on the front of the chest, a medallion showing the serpent wound about the tree of knowledge recalls the old interpretation of Pandora as a type of Eve.<ref>[[:File:W.Crane-Pandora.jpg|Wikimedia]]</ref>

In England the high drama of the incident was travestied in [[James Robinson Planché]]'s ''Olympic Revels or Prometheus and Pandora'' (1831), the first of the [[Victorian burlesque]]s. It is a costume drama peppered with comic banter and songs during which the gods betroth Pandora to a disappointed Prometheus with "only one little box" for dowry. When she opens it, Jupiter descends to curse her and Prometheus, but Hope emerges from the box and negotiates their pardon.<ref>James Robinson Planché, Charles Dance, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TtFZAAAAcAAJ ''Olympic Revels, or Prometheus and Pandora, a mythological, allegorical burletta in one act''], London 1834</ref>

At the other end of the century, [[Gabriel Fauré]]'s ambitious opera [[Prométhée]] (1900) had a cast of hundreds, a huge orchestra and an outdoor amphitheatre for stage. It was based in part on the ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' of [[Aeschylus]] but was rewritten so as to give the character of Pandore an equal part with his. This necessitated her falling "as if dead" on hearing the judgement against Prométhée in Act 1; a funeral procession bearing her body at the start of Act 2, after which she revives to mourn the carrying out of Prométhée's sentence; while in Act 3 she disobeys Prométhée by accepting a box, supposedly filled with blessings for mankind, and makes the tragedy complete.<ref>Jean-Michel Nectoux, ''Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life'', Cambridge University 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YEo5jwtbnC4C&dq=Gabriel+Faur%C3%A9+%E2%80%93+%22Pandore%22&pg=PA207 pp.192 – 214]</ref>

===Pandora in character===
<gallery mode="">
File:Pandora Loison cour Carree Louvre.jpg|''Pandora'' (1861) by Pierre Loison (1816–1886)
File:Madame Vestris as Pandora.jpg|[[Lucia Elizabeth Vestris|Madame Vestris]] in the burlesque ''Prometheus and Pandora'', an 1831 print
File:Alexandre Cabanel - Pandora - Walters 3799.jpg|Swedish soprano [[Christina Nilsson|Christine Nilsson]] as ''Pandora'' by [[Alexandre Cabanel]], 1873
File:Pandora-1879.jpg|[[Jane Morris]] in the role, [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]], coloured chalks, 1879
File:Yvonne Park - Pandora.png|[[Yvonne Gregory]]'s [[photogram]] recreates a pose from a painting, 1919 
</gallery>

The pattern during the 19th century had only repeated that of the nearly three millennia before it. The ancient myth of Pandora never settled into one accepted version, was never agreed to have a single interpretation. It was used as a vehicle to illustrate the prevailing ideologies or artistic fashions of the time and eventually became so worn a coinage that it grew confused with other, sometimes later, stories. Best known in the end for a single metaphorical attribute, the box with which she was not even endowed until the 16th century, depictions of Pandora have been further confused with other holders of receptacles – with one of the trials of [[Psyche (mythology)|Psyche]],<ref>Panofsky 1956, p.41</ref> with [[Sophonisba]] about to drink poison<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-evening-sale-n09460/lot.6.html| title = Sotherby's catalogue note}}</ref> or [[Artemisia II of Caria|Artemisia]] with the ashes of her husband.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.blouinartsalesindex.com/auctions/Elisabetta-Sirani-6504507/Portrait-of-a-lady,-half-length,-as-Pandora-or-Artemisia| title = Blouin Art Sales}}</ref> Nevertheless, her very polyvalence has been in the end the guarantor of her cultural survival.