A story from Ancient Greece, retold by Gail Forsyth-Vail.
A long time ago, the gods gave Prometheus and Epimetheus the task of creating creatures to inhabit the beautiful earth. The two brothers gave each creature a special quality from a jar in their workshop—wings for some, scales or webbed feet for others. Some animals received strength, or courage, or wisdom. When Epimetheus fashioned a human being, Prometheus was amazed. None of the qualities in the jar was a gift worthy of this new creature! So Prometheus decided to steal fire from the gods and give it to humans. And thus humans became more powerful than all the animals.
The gods were angry that humans had such power, so they made a plan. They fashioned a beautiful and intelligent woman named Pandora, and she became the wife of Epimetheus. Pandora was curious about everything on the earth. She explored the woods and the fields, watched the stars, and observed all the animals and plants.
With her strong sense of curiosity, Pandora could not resist a mystery. One day, when she came upon the jar in the workshop, she just had to lift the cover. A cloud of evils instantly poured forth: disease, anger, greed, jealousy, pain, violence, war, and more. She quickly covered the jar, but it was too late. These evils were now part of life on earth.
Epimetheus, dismayed, told Pandora she had released all the evils he had wanted to protect humans from. “Look,” he said, opening the cover once again, “there is a gift still left inside, a quality that humans now need, because of all those evils.” She looked and saw at the bottom of the jar something very beautiful and special, a gift that can help us all live fully, help one another, and feel joy, wonder, and love despite all the bad we may find in the world.
We call that gift HOPE.
Additional Activities
Download the Winter 2013 UUWorld Families Pages (pdf) for more activities.
Originally published in the “Families Weave a Tapestry of Faith” insert in The UUWorld.