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| ~ with great power, comes great responsibility ~ |
Once upon a time, a very, very long time ago there was a man
and there was also a woman. The man’s
name was Prometheus, and the woman was Pandora. These names may seem familiar
to you, but that is only because they were not only very popular names at the
time, but also because the popular version of this story as told by ancient
Greek writers made some amendments.
Their version of the story involves an extra character,
Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus. In
that version also, they are Titans. No,
no. The story really got blown out of proportion with all the retellings.
The other version of Prometheus is famous for stealing fire
from the gods and giving it to man. Part of his punishment was the creation of
women, the first of whom was the beautiful and dangerously curious Pandora.
Here is what really happened:
Prometheus was an ancient prince, and leader of his father’s
army. He was a great hero, and was very generous and had many other fantastic
qualities that made it easy for him to become a god, then a titan in the later
stories. ANYWAY, when an assassin from another land, Sol, came and killed the
king, a war begun, and Prometheus led his people to a glorious victory. The city of Sol was ransacked.
Among the spoils of war, was a very precious gem, a huge ruby
known as the Star-Fire. Prometheus himself stole it out of the royal treasury
and took it and the wealth of Sol back to his own city, which by the way was
called Mar. There, it was placed in the grand cathedral of the Church of Mar.
Okay, so how the star-fire, became just fire was because in
the original record, the figure that symbolized star was never understood or
translated properly and eventually was forgotten entirely. So, Prometheus stole
fire, and gave its power (same word as wealth in the original language) to the
people.
The Greeks liked this, and made a myth out of it.
Continuing on, the Princess of Mar, Pandora, who was in fact
the most beautiful woman in existence at the time, was also taken with the
spoils of war. She was not curious
however, nor did she have a box or jar or anything that contained chaos. That was
a different Pandora, case in point, the name was quite common.
This Pandora was cunning.
Since no other was worthy enough to be the wife of the godly
Prometheus, Pandora became betrothed to him. But before the wedding, she
betrayed him, and tried to steal the Star-fire and return it back to Sol.
She was caught in the act by Prometheus, outside of the
city. They were enemies by birthright,
but her being so beautiful, and him so godly, neither could help falling for
one another. Not realizing the feeling
was mutual, they argued relentlessly like an old married couple.
Finally, Pandora threw the Star-fire in her frustration. It
shattered into a million pieces.
Prometheus had nothing else to fight with her about , so he
forgave her and they were married in the Church of Mar, where later, the shards
of the star-fire were placed around the alter.
It is truly a shame that the best part of the story was so
lost, it didn't even make mention. Even
here, the eloquence is lost, but it was something about how wealth or power should
not come between people. Or something about how when this happens the wealth is
shattered… it was something like that.
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