Pandora's Box "A Growing Darkness"

Gods get angry... As for Prometheus and Epimetheus... A mere mortal who dares to upset the Gods... The Gods sent to them their punishment... For one, an endless suffering... And the other, a destructive beauty...

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-6 This retelling is patronizing in tone and lackluster in illustration. Pandora is formed from clay and gifted by the gods in order to punish mankind for neglecting them. Before sending her to Earth, Zeus bestows a final gifta golden box she is to deliver unopened to the man who will become her husband. A dutiful wife, Pandora gives the golden box to Epimetheus. While he is visiting his brother, Pandora, bored and curious, opens the box. The world's ills escape in a cloud of "miserable-looking little winged creatures," and, too late, she shuts the box. Upon returning home, Epimetheus and a contrite Pandora look into the box and find the last object remaininghope. This pedestrian retelling is illustrated in pen-and-ink drawings without wit or charm. The pages showing Epimetheus with his (nameless) brother depict a figure on a mountain with birds of prey hovering. Variance in retellings of myths, folk tales and legends is to be expected, but the omission of a key plot detail is not. Anyone familiar with the tale of Pandora might deduce that Epimetheus' brother is the renowned Prometheus, but Weil's omission of this fact is neither clever nor cute, just irresponsible. Janice M. Del Negro, Hild Regional Public Library, ChicagoCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reviews

News