GREEK FABLES
Pandora’s Box
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her and he did, using water and earth. The gods endowed her with many talents; Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo music, and so forth. Hence her name: Pandora means "all-gifted" in Greek.
When Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother. Zeus also gave Pandora a sealed box, which she was not to open under any circumstance. Moved by her natural curiosity, Pandora opened the box. Little did she know that the box contained all of the evil in the world. The evil contained escaped and spread over the earth. She quickly tried to close the lid, but the whole contents of the box had escaped, except for one thing which lay at the bottom, and that was Hope.
Icarus
Icarus and his father were trapped on the island of Crete. Luckily, Icarus's father was a talented and remarkable Atheniancraftsman. He fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers: one for himself and another for his son.
Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the happiness and freedom that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky curiously, but in the process he came too close to the sun. The wax in his wings melted. As Icarus kept flapping his wings, he soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea and died.
Narcissus
Narcissus was a hunter who was famous for his beauty. He was also exceptionally proud, in that he disdained [pitied / hated] those who loved him. The gods saw this, and decided to punish Narcissus. As divine punishment, he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, not realizing that it was just an image. He fell so in love with his own image that he wasted away to death, not being able to leave the beauty of his own reflection.
Sisyphus
Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest of men. He had even won the confidence of the gods, becoming knowledgeable about some of Zeus’s secrets. However, his confidence grew, and Sisyphus began to consider himself as an equal to the gods.
Zeus wanted to punish Sisyphus and order Thanatos (Death) to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus (Hell). Sisyphus cleverly asked Thanatos to demonstrate how the chains worked, and when he did, Sisyphus secured them around Thanatos’s wrists, trapping him in Tartarus. This caused chaos since no human could die with Thanatos imprisoned. Eventually Ares (who was annoyed that his battles had lost their fun because his opponents would not die) got involved and freed Thanatos.
As a punishment from the gods for his trickery and deception, Zeus made a deal with Sisyphus; Sisyphus would have to roll a large boulder up a steep hill, but if he reached the top of the hill with the boulder, he would be released from the underworld.
What Sisyphus didn’t know was that the higher he rose on the mountain, the heavier the boulder would become, and each time he attempted to roll it to the top, it would roll back down, forcing him to begin all over again. The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for Sisyphus due to hishubristicbelief that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus. As a result Sisyphus was condemned to repeat this task for all of eternity.