According to our understanding of Greek mythology, Pandora was the
             first woman created by the gods and given to the humans. According to
             various versions of the myth she was a true gift to them, or a trap, or
             even a punishment for accepting forbidden fire. One way or another, she was
             gifted with great beauty and important skills and charms. Pandora's very
             name means "All Gifted," and suggests that the gods were most generous to
             her and to humans through her. However, she was also gifted with a magic
             jar she was instructed never to open. (Over time this jar was changed into
             a box in most retellings) When her curiosity ot the better of her and she
             opened the box, all the ills of the world were released. At the bottom of
             This archetypical story of how woman infected the world with evil is
             closely related, and one might even say identical, to the Judeo-Christian
             story of Eve and the forbidden fruit. Historically Pandora has been
             consistently morphed with Eve in retellings and art. As with her Judeo-
             Christian counterpart, the way that society has approached Pandora and her
             story are a sort of litmus test for the way that society approaches women
             and their mythological and philosophical relationship to that society. It
             is interesting to see how Pandora's reflections in art have subtly and
             certainly changed over the centuries.
             Pandora was a popular figure in Grecian art, and generally
             represented as an idealized female progenitor. By the time of the
             Renaissance she had been sexualized and more thoroughly associated with
             death, and the sins and dangers of seductive Eve. Still the box takes a
             secondary place in the focus of the artwork. During the Protestant
             influenced baroque period her grace and beauty was stripped away leaving
             only the bloated distortion of female lust and greed behind. At that point
             she begins to be seen opening the box, and releasing its ills. Yet by ...