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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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Symbolism is something that is used very much in literature. Authors use this literary element to tell stories within the story. Motifs are a reoccurring element that has any sort of symbolic significance in a story. A theme in a story is a central concept of the story. Bernard Malamud used all three in his writings.

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Second thing about Prometheus is — he betrayed his people (Titans) by helping Zeus during the war ( Olympians VS. Titans). In the first few sentences, I wrote the Prometheus stole fire form Zeus right? Why? It’s because he loves his creations.

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Motifs can be expressed by symbols. Motifs are any elements that appears in one or more works of literature of art. Motifs explains the Theme in stories. It adds images and ideas to the theme to present throughout the narrative. Motifs provide compositions with a traceable pattern, meaning it can mean something.

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“Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt,” said the historical Roman playwright, Plautus. A motif is a recurring narrative element, such as a pattern or symbol. Authors often use motifs to reveal an underlying theme of the literature or symbolize a specific character or idea. Alice Hoffman utilizes the motif of minnows in her book “The River King” to reveal that Carlin had to let go of her guilt to overcome the grief of losing Gus. When Gus died, Carlin felt that she was at fault because they had been in a fight before his death, and this led to extreme feelings of guilt eating her alive every day.

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A motif can be an object, imagery, language, or even structure the author includes in their writing to elevate its depth and reveal things about specific characters. Throughout her novel, The River King, Hoffman uses the motif of the swans to demonstrate that the more people try to escape love, the more it will

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A literary motif is a recurring event that is present somewhat universally in many works of art and

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While the literary conception of Pandora changed Athenian depictions of her in ceramics and sculptures show little deviation from her previous existence as an earth-goddess. They adapted the changes by creating dualism within her depictions. Though the Athenians revered Pandora as the earth-goddess she once was with similarity to their own patron goddess Athena. They also acknowledged Hesiod’s philosophy of women being trouble and needing to controlled due to Pandora and her jar. Ironically a couple a of years after the Parthenon was completed, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 431 B.C.E., Athens was struck by a devastating plague, one of the evils Pandora let loose upon the world.

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His punishment was to be eternally bound to a mountain while an eagle fed on his liver daily. Another punishment was the creation of a woman named Pandora who was to be married to Prometheus’s brother. As a wedding gift, she was given a box and told not to open it, which of course, curiously, she did, releasing all the evils in the world today. As she closed the box, only hope remained, locked

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Motifs are narrative elements with symbolic significance that connect back to a theme. Motifs are often used to help the reader understand a character or to reinforce a theme. Alice Hoffman uses the motif of swans in her novel, The River King to symbolize that when humans try to push love away, it will always come back to them. First of all, when Hoffman is explaining Betsy’s role in the book, she mentions, “...

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According to Hesiod the story of Pandora comes with the moral that there is no escape from God’s will. Another moral of the Pandora's Box myth is that one disrespects the gods at one's own peril. Through Pandora's Box, Zeus punishes Prometheus' disrespect. The last moral could be that curiosity overcoming good sense can have devastating consequences. In this case , when Pandora's curiosity made her open the jar and made her disobey Zeus, all the evil escaped into the

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Comparing and contrasting the similarities between the Greek mythology of Pandora and the Biblical writings for Eve, is an enlightening topic. In Greek, the name Pandora means, “all gifts.” Hesiod had written, many literary works that included Pandora and her creation by Zeus. “Theogony” was one title work of Hesiod’s and the other was, “Works and Days.” Hesiod brings to light, in his writings that Pandora was created for the purpose to deceive man.

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You see, Prometheus had deliberately snatched fire from Zeus and it had made Zeus irritated. Zeus created Pandora to get back at Prometheus, but before Pandora went down to Earth, the gods hosted a banquet for her. At the banquet they gave her a box, but under no circumstances should she open the box. When Epimetheus spotted Pandora he immediately fell in

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