post 15: western civilization and pandora’s box

Pundits who have taken on the preservation of ancient Greek literature as a political project, rooting it in notions of Western supremacy, do not usually read this literature closely. Have you read “Works and Days” by the Greek poet Hesiod, which concretized the myths of Prometheus and Pandora’s Box? Hesiod’s poem may bear wisdom that is relevant to our present moment.

In line with the conventions of powerful myths around the world, “Works and Days” begins by presenting a theory of how the world works. According to the narrator, the great father-god Zeus, who has the power to give and the power to take away, has a habit of creating entities that are two halves of a whole (which resonates a bit with the Chinese philosophical concept of yin-yang). One of these dualistic / two-faced entities is Erides: i.e. the two forms of Strife. Upon introducing Erides, the poem instructs us that life cannot be without strife, but there is one form of strife people should avoid, and another form of strife people should embrace. The form of strife to be avoided is needless war and cruelty, which is marked by the immaturity of all who willingly participate in it. The form of strife to be embraced, on the other hand (“the eldest born of dark Night”), is one that is “rooted in Earth.” The preferable form of strife, or struggle, is not based in malice towards others, nor in an insecure insistence on hoarding wealth and resources — it is rooted in a desire to improve both the self and the collective. 

Yet, as you likely know if you are familiar with mythology as a genre, gods do not always agree. Prometheus, the defiant titan who gave humankind the gift of fire before Zeus permitted it, disrupted the gods’ cultivation of a mature, “elder” form of Strife. And in an arguably hotheaded effort to punish Prometheus and restore balance in human development, Zeus created Pandora, who was sculpted and enlivened by Hephastois (the artisan god), instructed in craftmaking by Athena, bestowed with charm and obsessive longing by Aphrodite, and imbued with dogged curiosity and deceptiveness by Hermes. 

When Pandora was delivered to Earth by Hermes, she sought out a jar in which the gods had hidden “the true means of livelihood for humankind” — which we can interpret as innovations in technology (including agriculture) and resource extraction that would be disastrous to unleash upon the world all at once, and so suddenly, without adequate planning. But Pandora, with a pleasing appearance that put all who saw her at ease, and a rash and dogged attitude toward anything that intrigued her, opened the jar and rapidly unleashed all of its contents except “Elpis [Hope].” Countless technologies and their consequences (pollution, disease, anxieties, exploitation) were set upon humankind before they were prepared for them. 

Does this remind you at all of generative AI and its intrusive data centers? Or of fracking and its pollutive consequences? Or of mining and its slave labor? Or of plantation agriculture and its slave labor? Or of capitalism and imperialism, which are themselves technologies? Or, or, or — I’m starting to sound like a seal. 

In this reading I’ve provided of “Works and Days,” I hope to remind us that some of the great myths of Western civilization already critiqued the present status of Western life centuries and centuries ago! Modern-day Western life is defined by devastating wars, genocides, climate crises, and widespread suffering that could be ameliorated if we collectively change our relationship to Strife. Our immature suffering is not necessary, but, metaphorically speaking, we can only end it by understanding what came out of Pandora’s box. When Western life insisted not only upon local empire, but global empire, what forces were released upon the world? Has it ever been sensible to unleash technologies without first understanding their consequences? Can anything taken by force be had with ease?  

In lines 320 to 326 of “Works and Days,” Hesiod writes (as translated by Gregory Nagy):

Remember that myths are meant to instruct, for better or worse. The myth of Prometheus and Pandora warns us of the calamity that can arise, on a global level, from rash immaturity. 

POSTSCRIPT

It’s been a while since I’ve posted! A quick writing update: Loving Safoa was a finalist in the “Lesbian Romance” category of the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards, which were held on Saturday, October 4th. Loving Safoa did not win, but it is still an honor to be a finalist. Artistic awards and contests are strange things, because it is rare that there is only one finalist who is deserving of the win on the basis of artistic merit. This is one of the reasons I have been setting a distance between awards and my self esteem for some years now. I am glad that Loving Safoa has had an impact, and I will continue to work on my novel project (as well as my dissertation!).