Pandora

Pandora’s Box is a popular myth that highlights humanity’s curiosity and morality. In the story, Pandora is given a ptihos (meaning large jar – big enough to hold food provisions or a dead body for burial) and is instructed not to open it by the pantheon. Driven by her curiosity and desire to know what lies within the vessel, Pandora opens the jar, exposing the world to diseases, malice, and the vices of man... leaving hope trapped inside. However, there is an additional myth involving Pandora, in which her daughter crushes up her mother’s bones and spreads them across the land to repopulate the earth after a great flood has decimated the populace. This obscure myth is often forgotten altogether when Pandora is visualized in artworks. To appease the originality of both Pandora’s myth and her legacy, I have combined both tales to create a synthesized version of virtue and beauty. 

In my contemporary retelling of the Greek myth, I have visualized Pandora as the pithos, with cracks of chrome luminance breaking through her vessel. Beams of color and light escape the fissures while mirrors reflect the souls that she had inadvertently created post-mortem. Viewers gaze upon their reflection, noting their existence and present moment. Life is celebrated here, with notes of beauty, aestheticism, and sacrifice highlighting the creation of a new world. 

Dani Papa

"Pandora's Pithos: Unboxed"

Acrylic Paint, Acrylic Paint Marker, Canvas, Liquid Chrome Pen, Mirrors on Birch Panel 

96" x 60"

2023