One day, the god created a beautiful woman called Pandora and took her to Prometheus. His brother, Epimetheus, married her. The couple lived happily together until one day Mercury, the messenger of the gods, arrived with a mysterious box. He asked Pandora and her husband to take care of it. He made them promise never to look inside it. For days Pandora could not take her eyes off the box. All the time she wondered what was inside. One day, she slowly lifted the lid and looked inside. To her surprise, there were no glittering jewels, dresses, golden coins–instead the god had filled the box with all evils now known to mankind.
Disease, misery and death buzzed around stinging her. Pandora screamed and screamed with pain and fear. Epimetheus heard her cries as he ran towards her. Pandora and Epimetheus heard a little voice coming from the box. ‘Let me out!’ Believing that nothing inside the box could be worse than the horrors released, they opened the lid once more. All that remained was a butterfly. The beautiful butterfly was–hope, which Mercury had hidden amongst the evils.
