At last the oldest of the gods brought order into chaos and separated heaven from earth and earth from sea. The heavens were clear and filled with innumerable stars; the earth was dry and contained hills, valleys, and plains; the sea flowed blue and green in its restless currents about the shores of the world. Of all the elements that made up chaos, fire was the lightest, and so fire rose up highest and formed the heavens. Earth sank down, and the ocean remained below, bearing up the earth. The earth began to put forth trees and grass, and these the creatures of nature ran and climbed. Fishes swam in the fresh rivers that flowed down the valleys; other kinds of fish inhabited the ocean. So things began after the creation of heaven, earth and sea.

Then one of the gods - it is not known which - thought that a nobler creature was wanted than all the the animals of the air, the land and the water - some creature wiser and greater than they. So man was made. The creator of man was the giant Prometheus. He came of the race of the Titans, a giant people who were born on earth before man. Prometheus saw that man must be made from the earth, since only the gods could be made of heavenly substance. He took handfulls of earth and kneaded them with water into the shape of a god. What separated man from all other animals was that, while they crept on their bellies or ran and trotted about on all fours, man alone walked upright on two feet. While other creatures looked downwards towards the earth from which they came, man looked upwards towards the heavens, because he had been made in the image of the gods who dwell there.

It was to Prometheus the Titan and his brother Epimetheus that the gods entrusted the work of making man and fitting him to live on the earth among the animals. It was the special task of Epimetheus to provide the creatures with the qualities and parts they needed - swiftness to the tiger, strength to the lion, wings for the birds and fins for the fish; the fox was given cunning, the wolf ferocity and the elephant its huge size and his thick, leathery skin.

But what was to be given to man, who was to be greater than all other animals? He could never have claws like those of the tiger, nor speed like that of the horse; he could not fly like the eagle or grow horns likke a deer. Even the little hare was faster than he, and the spotted leopard better at hiding himself among the trees. How could man live in a world full of creatures such as these? His skin was fine and soft, his teeth and nails small, his whole body unfitted to survive without some greater power. The truth was that Epimetheus had used up all the gifts in his possession and had nothing special left to give to man. So he went to his brother Prometheus and asked him to help.

"What can I give man," he asked, "to make him stronger and greater than all other creatures?"

"We must give him something from heaven," answered Prometheus, "something beyond the power of all oters upon earth."

Accordingly Prometheus went up to heaven with a torch in his hand and stole fire from the sun. For fire is of all things that which truly belong to heaven. So man was given the heavenly gift of fire, and with this he gained the mastery over all other creatures on earth. With fire man was able to make tools to cultivate the earth. He had no long nails to scratch in the soil so that he could sow the seeds, but with the spade and the plough he was able to do so. He was able, with the help of fire, to make sharp weapons to subdue the creatures around him; he could make scythes to cut the grass of the field and so keep alive the cattle on which he fed and the horses on which he went hunting. With fire he could warm himself and his home, so that he could live in places that would otherwise have been too cold. With fire he was able to melt down metals to make images and statues, coins and ornaments. So fire, the gift of Prometheus, gave man the mastery over all nature and enabled him to become strong and poerful beyond the stregth of his own body.

Till now, so the Greeks believed, no women had been made. At length Zeus determined that man needed a companion and a helpmate. Some believed that women was sent, not as a friend to man, but to plague him for having taken the gift of fire which Prometheus had stolen from the heaven. Whatever was in the mind of Zeus, chief of the gods, he sent Pandora to be the first woman on earth. She was made, not on the earth like man, but in heaven. Every god gave her some special gift. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Hera, the wife of Zeus, gave her womanliness, Athene wisdome, Apollo the gift of a musical voise. So Pandora came down from heaven to live on earth in the house of the Titan Epimetheus.

Now Epimentheus had in his house a huge box containing many things he had no use for when he placed man upon earth. These were a manner of troubles - diseases and plagues; aches and pains; disorders of the mind; worry, fear, emvy, jealously and greed. Since all these things were firmly shut in the box, man had so far no experience of them. He could not even guess what they were.

"On no account," said Epimetheus to Pandora sternly, "are you to try to open this box and find out what is inside. Remeber what I say, and leave the box alone."

For a long time Pandora did as she was told. Yet all the time she longed to know what was in the box. Had she not been given the gift of curiosity? In the the end she was unable to resist temptation. One day, when Epimetheus was away from home, curiosity got the better of patience, and she worked the lid from the box. As it slid to the ground, she bent down and looked in. At once she was surrounded by all the ills on earth - cramp and toothache for the body, spite and envy for the mind. All these evils, and many more besides, rose from the box and swirled past poor Pandora's head, scattering themselves over the face of the earth.

At once Pandora, seeing what she had done and how foolish it was to let her curiosity to get the better of her, picked up the lid of the box wth trembling hands and tried to cram in on. It was too late. All the evils contained in the box had escaped, all but one thing, and that is not evil but a blessing. It was hope. That alone remained as woman's gift to man. That alone was left as a comfort when he is surrounded by disease and wickedness.

Story from James Reeves' Heros & Monsters: Legends of Ancient Greece.