Zeus, enraged, decided to punish Prometheus by chaining him in unbreakable fetters and set an eagle over him to eat his liver each day. The eagle is Zeus's sacred creature. Prometheus was an immortal titan, so the liver grew back every day, but he was still tormented daily from the pain, until he was freed by Heracles during The Twelve Labors. Another possible reason for Prometheus' torment was because he knew which of Zeus' lovers would bear a child who would eventually overthrow Zeus. Zeus commanded that Prometheus reveal the name of the mother, but Prometheus refused, instead choosing to suffer the punishment.
However, Zeus also had to punish mankind. The punishment was woman. More specifically, Pandora, her name meaning 'all gifts' (Though, it is belived by some that she was once known as Anesidora). Pandora was given several traits from the different gods; Hephaestus molded her out of clay and gave her form; Athena clothed her and the Charities adorned her with necklaces made by Hephaestus; Aphrodite gave her beauty ; Apollo gave her musical talent and a gift for healing; Demeter taught her to tend to a garden; Poseidon gave her a pearl necklace and the ability to never drown; Hera gave her curiosity; Hermes gave her cunning, boldness, and charm. Zeus gave her insatiable curiosity and mischievousness. Thus the name Pandora -"all gifts"- in Hesiod's version derives from the fact that she recieved gifts from all deities.
The most significant of these gifts, however, was a pithos or storage jar given to Pandora either by Hermes or Zeus. Before he was chained to the rock, Prometheus had warned Epimetheus to be wary of any gifts given by the gods. However, when Pandora arrived, he fell in love with her and married her despite the warning he had been given. Hermes told Epimetheus that Pandora was a gift to the titan from Zeus, and he warned Epimetheus not to open the jar, which was Pandora's dowry.
Until then, mankind lived life ina paradise without worry. Epimetheus told pandora never to open the jar she had received from Zeus. However, Pandora's curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, releasing all the mmisfortunes of mankind: "For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Keres(baleful spirits) upon men; for in misery men grow old quikly"(Hesiod, Work and Days). Once opened, she shut it in time to keep one thing in the jar: hope. The world remained extremely bleak for an unspecified interval, untill Pandora chanced to revisit the box again, at which point Hope fluttered out. Thus, mankind always has hope in times of evil and misfortune.
- The myth according to Hesiod
