希腊神话故事 01（在线收听）

Pandora’s Box

When the gods created the earth, they made it a perfect place for man. Each of the gods gave man a gift, such as strength, intelligence, and skills, and they filled the earth with everthing that man nennded to live happily. Fruit tree grew everywhere, and beautiful flowers gave out a delicious drink called nectar that gave people energy. No people needed to work or hunt, and people never grew old or sick or died.

The only thing that the gods did not give man was fire. This they kept for themselves. They feared that giving man fire would make him as powerful as the gods and would cause him to destroy the many wonderful things that the gods had put on earth.

One day, the Titan named Prometheus stole some fire from heaven and gave it to man. Though man knew that fire was the possession of the gods, they still accepted Prometheus’gift. Zeus was very angry at this and decided to punish man. He called on Hephaestus, the gods of metal and fire, ang asked him to build a woman out of stone. Aphrodire, the goddess of love, modeled for the statue so that it would be beautiful. When it was finished, Athena breathed life into the cold stone and it came alive. Then each of the gods gave the woman a gift. Aphrodite taught her how to dance and how to attract any man without even having to look at him. Athena gave her great wisdom. Apollo taught her how to play many musical instrumenta, and the Muse’s taught her how to sing. Hermes taught her how to speak wonderful lies that made other people happy. The last gift was given to her by Hera, Zeus’ wife, and this was curiosity.The gods then named her Pandora, which means, “All-gifted” and placed her down on earth with all the common men.