Pandora was the first woman on Earth, created by the gods to be exceptionally gifted and beautiful. She was given to Epimetheus, who eagerly accepted her as his bride -- despite the fact that his brother, Prometheus, warned him against accepting gifts from the gods. Zeus gave her a special jar for a wedding present, and told her that neither she nor Epimetheus should ever open it. One day when her husband was away, Pandora's curiosity overcame her; she just couldn't see the harm in opening the jar. When she opened the jar, illness, suffering and everything else bad in the world came flowing out as punishment. The only thing that stayed behind was Hope although, in some versions, Hope is the last thing to escape into the world.
I tend to prefer the version where Hope does come out; without hope that problems could be resolved, how could we even begin to fix them? There are so many evils in this world that it's easy to feel hopeless, but I believe most of the problems facing us today stem from one key issue: prejudice. If we all acknowledged each other's own experiences as valid and looked at the world from perspectives other than our own, it would be easy to get rid of complex societal issues such as sexism, racism, and homophobia; even problems like environmental degradation and animal abuse could be solved by considering facts and making moral decisions. Prejudice limits all of our minds, and would be the first thing I'd squak if I got the chance.
Hope is one of the greatest things we learn from this myth. I too think many of our problems could be solved if we could get rid of prejudice. Many people don't even realize that they are being prejudice, and if they did, they could think about how that effects their interactions with others, resolving many of our issues.
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