women grasped it to take off
the lid the jar was cast down, and the things that were inside spilled
themselves forth.

They were black and gray and red; they were crawling and flying things.
And, as the women looked, the things spread themselves abroad or
fastened themselves upon them.

The jar, like Pandora herself, had been made and filled out of the ill
will of Zeus. And it had been filled, not with salves and charms and
washes, as the women had thought, but with Cares and Troubles. Before
the women came to it one Trouble had already come forth from the
jar--Self-thought that was upon the top of the heap. It was
Self-thought that had afflicted the women, making them troubled about
their own looks, and envious of the graces of the Golden Maid.

And now the others spread themselves out--Sickness and War and Strife
between friends. They spread themselves abroad and entered the houses,
while Epimetheus, the mindless Titan, gathered flowers for Pandora, the
Golden Maid.

Lest she should weary of her play he called to her. He would take her
into the houses of men. As they drew near to the houses they saw a
woman seated on the ground, weeping; her husband had suddenly become
hard to her and had shut the door on her face.

They came upon a child crying because of a pain that he could not
understand. And then they found two men struggling, their strife being
on account of a possession that they had both held peaceably before.

In every house they went to Epimetheus would say, "I am the brother of
Prometheus, who gave you the gift of fire." But instead of giving them
a welcome the men would say, "We know nothing about your relation to
Prometheus. We see you as a foolish man upon stilts."

Epimetheus was troubled by the hard looks and the cold words of the men
who once had reverenced him. He turned from the houses and went away.
In a quiet place he sat down, and for a while he lost sight of Pandora.
And then it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his wise and
suffering brother saying, "Do not accept any gift that Zeus may send
you."

He rose up and he hurried away from that place, leaving Pandora playing
by herself. There came into his scattered mind Regret and Fear. As he
went on he stumbled. He fell from the edge of a cliff, and the sea
washed away the body of the mindless brother of Prometheus.

Not everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been brought
with Pandora into the world of men. A beautifu