Pandora/Eve Precurser

So a few months ago I had the inspiration to begin a painting based on the Greek Myth of Pandora. I've always been intrigued by the story and I found a model who was into the idea so we came up with a pose and began the painting. If you don't know the myth of Pandora, this is taken from wikipedia:

In Greek Mythology, Pandora was the first woman. Each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mould her out of Earth as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire , and all the gods joined in offering this "beautiful evil" seductive gifts. According to the myth, Pandora opened a jar, in modern accounts referred to as "Pandora's Box", releasing all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining— leaving only hope inside once she had closed it again.

What the above excerpt doesn't mention is that Pandora had no prior knowledge of what was in the box, she was merely told that she 'shouldn't open it.' As you may imagine, many artist have been inspired to create images of Pandora in the past. Of course on occasion there may have been that propensity for artists to want to paint a Pandora image as a knock against a cruel lover, or maybe an unattainable, thus 'evil' woman in their life. As you can see, the blaming of women for the worlds evils is not a new idea, even in the age when the Bible was written. Of course that's ludicrous, who wouldn't open the jar/box if it was given to them?

Here are a few examples of works focusing on Pandora, including one by Rossetti and another more contemporary one by Boris (heh). My favorite has always been the Arthur Rackham one (bottom right), you might recognize his work from Alice in Wonderland.