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Pandora's Box Motifs

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Motifs help develop and inform the reader about major themes using recurring structures, symbols, contrasts, and literary devices. These motifs can recur throughout mythology and modern-day religions to literature written in the 1600s. Each culture has a different interpretation of the motif that is used to help portray the theme. Motifs that share the same theme and different themes are found throughout literature in different cultures and religions. Pandora's Box from Greek mythology and the story of Adam and Eve from the bible share similar motifs, one of them being a similar story structure. Pandora's Box, also known as Works And Days, written by Hesiod and translated by Gregory Nagy, starts with an angered Zeus. After Prometheus betrayed Zeus by stealing fire and giving it to the humans, Zeus came up with a plan to deceive him. …show more content…

Lastly, he ordered Hermes to “put inside her an intent that is doglike and a temperament that is stealthy”, then after she was created to bring her to Epimetheus, Prometheus’ brother. Although Prometheus warned his brother not to accept pandora as a gift from the gods, he did anyway. Zeus then gave Pandora a jar that she was told not to open. Her curiosity got the better of her and opened the jay, evils escaped the jar, and despite Pandora trying to shut the jar again she failed. The last thing that was left in the jar was hope (Nagy). The story of Pandora's Box explains how evil came into the world according to Greek myths, in Christianity there is a similar story explaining how evil came into the

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