Pandora’s Box

fictionspawn Aak, , , ,

Jar of All Evil Aak fictionspawn

Harold and Peter had travelled to Greece to find the lost temple of Epimetheus. Some ancient cult had been living in the area, worshipping the titan. They had hired a guide, Dimitra, to help them navigate in the Greek wilderness.

Deep down into the temple the astonishing architecture was of another world. Well preserved carvings and paintings on the walls, thousands of years old.

Peter stopped, taking photos of artefacts, documenting everything on his way. Harold went further in, his curiosity was unstoppable.

In the middle of a big hall he found a huge, beautiful jar. He had never seen anything like it. The carvings were extraordinary. He needed to know what was inside. It had to be hiding something spectacular.

Dimitra came in. She saw the jar, and the British archaeologist climbing up on it.

Nooooo! She ran towards him. It was too late. The lid was off.

Horrors poured out. Terrible evils of hate and greed ravished. Spirits of suffering and pain. One took hold of Harold’s mind. Dimitra took a step back. His face looked strange. Dark.

He got his knife out. She tried to run. There was no escape.

Harold ran out through the door as the personifications of human faults and cruelties flew around the hall. Peter saw his friend come running. Terror in his eyes.

Run!!!

They ran up the stairs, fell out of the opening with all possible horrors flying out over their heads.

What the fuck happened? Peter was crying. Sorrow had taken hold of his heart. -Where’s Dimitra?

She’s dead! Something killed her! She… She opened a jar. She opened a jar and some horrible creatures came out. I tried to stop her…

Women, Peter said, shaking his head.

Yes, Harold answered. Women.

They walked fast down towards the village. Smoke could be seen in a distance. They heard screams. Something terrible was happening, and it was spreading out through the land.

Pandora’s box was opened. There was nothing they could do.

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-pandoras-box-118577

https://www.greekmythology.com/Titans/Epimetheus/epimetheus.html

Knossos

Published by fictionspawn Aak

Norwegian trilingual writer and illustrator. Contact information in my Gallery.

26 Comments

  1. Figures a woman would be blamed. Lol jk
    What an exciting story, it reads like the beginning of a great movie.
    I did get a bit confused at a part, but then I realized that Dimitra’s name is Electra at the end.

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    1. Thanks. Old stories about the origen of evil tend to go in the direction of blaming women, really. There’s another one a lot more famous than Pandora’s Box, too… 😉 Thought it would be fun to give it another twist.
      The name has been corrected, thanks for letting me know 🙂

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  2. Of course it’s women. That’s why Akira is so evil! Who can fight history? Ironically, women create life, so life itself must be perceived as evil as well! Go figure! And what is more famous than the story of Pandora’s box? Bring me up to speed. Thanks.

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        1. I read about the parallels between the two stories in the process. They seemed to be of more or less the same age, and the theory was they have some kind of unknown common roots. Maybe we’ve always blamed women. I blame my girlfiend quite often… 😀

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  5. Ah, this excellently written story shows the importance of conveyors of Greek mythological tales getting their facts straight.

    If only Dimitra had known that Pandora’s box was actually a jar rather than a box, this tragedy might never have happened.

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  6. Spawn…I wrote one line in my current blog as a tribute to one of your posts. Someone else caught it! See if you can find it…’cause you inspired it! It’s a good line!

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    1. Thanks. I read that. I actually read that hope was the only thing she managed to keep in when she closed the lid. I’m not really sure how to interpret that, though… I’d say hope should be let out 😀

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  10. Peter’s a lying little sh*t, isn’t he? On the other hand, I thought the legend of Pandora’s Box was to explain why we’re living in such a terrible world in the first place. Since the world is as it is, how could opening a second, supposedly identical box, make it worse?

    Fun idea. What if someone found a way to reverse the box’s effect, basically sucking in all of the faults it had once spewed out? What would the world be like? Hint: it depends on who’s telling the story.

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    1. It sure would. The total set of ideas of a perfect world are highly inconsistent 😀
      I did have at a moment a thought about putting in a time loop on this one, which could have answered your question, really, but the story would be a lot more complicated. It ended up being more symbolic…

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