Greek and Roman MythologyGreek and Roman Mythology

Creation of MankindCreation of Mankind

Different origins of mankind in mythology

• In Homer's version of creation of humans,the god Prometheus formed the first man,out of mud and breathes life into him with the help of Athena.

• In Hesiod’s account, Zeus created succeeding races of men gold, silver, bronze and iron.

Hesiod’s version- five ages of mankind

• The golden race• The silver race• The brass race• The heroic race (godlike heroes)• The iron race

Homer’s version of creating man

Prometheus and Epimetheus were spared imprisonment in Tartarus because they had not fought with their fellow Titans during the war with the Olympians. They were given the task of creating man. Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure.

Prometheus’ good deeds for mankind

• 1. Fashioning humans in a nobler shape than the animals, upright like gods

• 2. Bringing down fire from heaven to mankind• 3. Teaching humans to trick Zeus while picking

the parts of animals as sacrifice for gods

Prometheus stealing fire from the gods

Zeus’ revenge on mankind-Pandora

• Zeus called Hephaestus, the god of fire and a master blacksmith, and ordered him to shape a mortal being out of clay. When the figure was finished and brought to him, Zeus breathed life into it and called it woman. Then, Zeus assembled all the gods and asked them to give gifts to this woman-creature. They named her Pandora, which means the gift of all.

Pandora- “the gift of all”

Zeus’ revenge on mankind-Pandora

• Then Hermes handed her a box with the instruction never, ever to open the box. The gods sent their creation down to Epimetheus, the foolish brother of Prometheus. The box teased Pandora's mind unbearably. Curiosity overcame her; she simply had to open the box. But as soon as she lifted the lid, misfortunes began to fly out.

Pandora’s box

•“Remorse of Pandora”

The only thing remained in Pandora’s box-hope

• Now that the lid was open, they all quickly flew out. Sorrow, hunger, anger, disease, madness, and a hundred other horrible conditions filled Pandora’s room and, like smoke, they

escaped out into the world to plague mankind for the rest of time.

As the evils swarmed around her, Pandora became frightened. As quickly as she could, she slammed shut the lid of the box, but Pandora realized that it was too late to regret not having obeyed the gods. Their revenge was final. However, Pandora noticed that one spirit still remained in her box. This was the spirit of hope.