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Mouseion, Series III. Vol. 4 (2004) 107-119
©2004 Mouseion
HOPE IN A JAR 1
LIZ WARMAN
The significance of the EATTic in the TT180c of Hesiod's Pandora story has
been the subject of protracted and inconclusive scholarly debate. The
Pandora narrative as a whole has often been thought deficient in coherence.
West, editor of the standard text of the Works and Days,2 finds
two stories inadequately blended, the first in which Pandora herself is
the evil promised as punishment for the theft of fire, the second in
which the jar is the source of all evils. He calls the final product"an unusually
clear instance of the way narrative inconsistencies arise as old
stories are retold. "3 Nagy. on the other hand, finds the Works and Days
to be characterized by "cohesiveness and precision," and calls for "rigorous
internal analysis"4 on the part of Hesiod's readers to demonstrate
that coherence. I believe that such an analysis should at least be attempted
before West's judgement against Hesiod's mastery of his material
is accepted.
I will argue for a general definition of EAlTic as emotion-tinged uncertainty
about the future. and discuss possible translations of EAlTlc as
well as Greek authors' evaluations of it. I will then follow the path taken
by Vernant,5 whose reading of the Pandora story has been lauded as
"completely persuasive."6 While I subscribe in the main to Vernant's
interpretation and offer support for several of his conclusions, I will
sometimes diverge from him and offer correctives to certain of his
, This title is borrowed from Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, who himself
unwittingly borrowed Hesiod's image of delusive promise when he called
his cosmetics "hope in a jar" (Peiss [r998] 200).
2 West (1978) is the text cited throughout this essay. unless otherwise noted.
3 West (lg66) 307. The second-century A.D. version of the story found in
Babrius (58) is held up by many as a model of coherence. In it, a man with no
self-control opens a jar full of good things given to men by Zeus. Most of the
goods fly out and are lost. Only EAnle remains in the jar. The inference is obvious:
good hope is preserved to help men face a dreadful world. With admiration
for Babrius' lucidity goes the conviction that his story "more closely reflects
the original sense of the myth than does the version forced upon posterity
by Hesiod" (Panofsky [1956] 6; d. Cow [r914] 106; Rudhardt [1986]235)·
4 Nagy (19go) 80. 82.
5 Vernant (lg81). id. (1989).
6 Clay (2003) 10 1.
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