How Can the Myth Pandora's Box Relate to Modern Day Life

Pandora's Box Re-Modeled

Subjects

• Linguistic communication Arts
• Literature

Grades

• half-dozen-12
  

Cursory Description

Students read "Pandora's Box," and then create modernistic-day versions of Pandora'south box of evil and hope.

Objectives

Students volition

• acquire well-nigh dissimilar kinds of myths.
• study the myth of "Pandora's Box."
• work in minor groups to brainstorm modernistic-24-hour interval symbols of evil and hope.
• create modernistic-solar day versions of Pandora's box.
• charge per unit the efforts of their peers.

Keywords

nature myth, creation myth, myth, Greece, Zeus. creation story, scapegoat, Pandora, adept, evil

Materials Needed

• cardboard boxes (ane for each grouping of 4-v students)
• markers, paints
• objects (students volition provide)
  

Lesson Plan

Begin the lesson by introducing students to creation myths -- stories that explain the origins of things. Ask students to provide examples of cosmos stories. (The Bible and other religious sources might exist referenced.) Discuss with students the distinction between religious stories and mythology.

For additional background information, y'all might introduce to students to some basic material at the post-obit Spider web sites:

-- The Genesis Project: Cosmos Myths
-- Creation Myths from Around the Globe
-- Mything Links: Common Themes in Cosmos Myths
-- Egyptian Creation Myths

Compare creation myths with other mythologies. Explain, for example, that nature myths are stories that explain natural phenomena, such every bit how the sun came to smoothen, why the bear sleeps all wintertime, and what acquired the first hurricane.

Tell students that the myth they volition read today explains the origin of evil. You might first the give-and-take past asking students to share whatsoever stories that explicate the origins of evil they take heard. If nobody mentions information technology, you might bring up the story of Adam and Eve. According to the Bible, anybody who lived in Eden was innocent and immortal; Eden had an abundance of food. All that changed when Eve ate the apple and introduced evil into the world.

Inquire students to brand connections betwixt Eve and other characters in literature. (My students brought up Mrs. Hutchison in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." They said she was a scapegoat for that community'southward bug.)

Then introduce the story of Pandora's Box. You probably will find a version of the story in a literature anthology, or you can make copies of the story from a library book.

If you tin can locate it, I highly recommend a version of the story written for very young children. Information technology tin can be found in the volume Greek Myths for Immature Children past Marcia Williams. Other sources, which can be found online, include A Brief Retelling of Pandora's Box and Episode 113 of the PBS Kids show "Betwixt the Lions."

Pandora'south Box is a story about how evil came to exist in the world; in this Greek myth, evil came out of a box. The box did contain 1 good thing, nonetheless -- Hope. Equally the Cursory Retelling tells it, "And so now, when there is trouble and sadness among united states humans, nosotros have Hope to make us experience that tomorrow will be meliorate."

After sharing the story, discuss with students some of the parallels between Pandora'south Box and the story of Eve eating the apple. So ask such questions as:

• Is there a moral to the story? ("Curiosity killed the cat?")
• Where is the story set up? (Hellenic republic)
• Who is the protagonist? (Prometheus)
• What was Prometheus similar? (a giant, played fox on Zeus)
• What did he practice? (created people)
• Who are other characters in the story? (Zeus, Pandora, Epimetheus)
• What are those characters like? (Notation: Characters in the story differ from version to version. Many versions include Zeus, who is very powerful and gets mad easily; Pandora, who is a beautiful, nagging woman, the first woman e'er; and Epimetheus, who is afraid of Zeus.)
• What's in the box? (evil and hatred, but also hope)
• Why does Zeus give Pandora the box? (to get back at Prometheus for stealing fire from the sun)
• Why would the author of this story make the opener of the box a woman?

At this point, you might introduce a discussion of how myths often blame the ills of the world on women.

The Culminating Activity
Arrange students into groups of four or five. Provide each group with a cardboard box and explain to students that they are to create modern-day versions of Pandora'south Box. After decorating the exterior of the box to wait like a treasure chest, students will brainstorm the contents of the box; they must put inside the box five or more objects that stand for evil, and 2 or iii things that represent hope. For example, students might cut out news headlines about terrorism, anthrax, and crimes to represent evil. One of my students put in a lookout to represent evil, saying that we are all bound by time thanks to Pandora. For hope, students have included a cross, a Bible, a moving-picture show of a doctor, and so on. Permit your students go with their imaginations and see what results! (The activeness might require bringing in objects from home.) Then have each group share its box with the class. Groups should retell the story of Pandora before presenting their boxes, and each student in the group should explain his or her addition to the box.

Assessment

Students write a paragraph in which they explicate which group's presentation is best and why they call up so. Enquire: What did that group do to make their presentation the best? Was your choice based on the training they did? the ability and depth of their thinking? the creativity shown in the cosmos of their box? something else?

Submitted Past

Anita Wadhwa, Lee High School in Houston, Texas

01/17/2012

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