Having a Greek heritage, I receive the diatribe of ancient myths on a regular basis in relation to my mistakes and predicaments. Pandora's Box is one I hear often and know well. After Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create the woman Pandora as part of the punishment for mankind. For fear of additional reprisals, Prometheus warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen, and married Pandora. Pandora had been given a large jar and instruction by Zeus to keep it closed, but she had also been given the gift of curiosity, and ultimately opened it. When she opened it, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her box, there lay hope.
There is no reason to think Pandora acted out of malice in opening the jar, for she was exercising her curiosity, and also when she saw what was let out of it, she quickly closed it. But with her mistake, evil runs rampant. Thankfully, hope manifests itself from evil in the world, and humanity works together to thrive off of hope and repress the evils of the world. I am not sure if I believe in lesser or greater evils, but I could certainly live without some. One evil in particular I'd like to squelch is ignorance. Ignorance can be seen in all walks of life, from the most pertinent issues in our society to our own innermost thoughts. Ignorance is a circular issue, though; those who gain wisdom and walk away from ignorance use other evils, such as greed and power, to take advantage of those who are still ignorant and will blindly follow. Nonetheless, the further people get from ignorance and the closer they get to truth, I believe society will thrive and overthrow other evils which cripple our world. To quote Plato, "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."
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