Pandora (1896), by J.W. WaterhouseBecause Prometheus had stolen the fire from Mount Olympus, Zeus pu

Pandora (1896), by J.W. Waterhouse

Because Prometheus had stolen the fire from Mount Olympus, Zeus punished mankind by creating Pandora.  She was sent to earth with a jar that was not to be opened.  But man’s thirst for knowledge was too strong and when she opened the box, sickness, death and all other of world’s evils escaped.

In a jar an odious treasure is

Shut by the gods’ wish:

A gift that’s not everyday,

The owner’s Pandora alone;

And her eyes, this in hand,

Command the best in the land

As she flits near and far;

Prettiness can’t stay

Shut in a jar.

Someone took her eye, he took

A look at what pleased her so

And out came the grief and woe

We won‘t ever be rid of,

For heaven had hidden

That in the jar.

In the works of Waterhouse in the 1890’s, the somewhat cold classicism was gradually replaced with a warmer English version of symbolism that some even call a late outburst of romanticism.