Taking the PPC4 - 52 Weeks of Poetry

Prompt 34 (18th March 2024)

Hope

When Prometheus, the Titan, stole
then shared the secrets of fire with humankind
gifting us knowledge and technology
Zeus himself, the King of the Gods, was enraged
and sought to punish both him, and humanity
Summoning his lame son Hephaestus, Zeus commanded
the smith to fashion the first human woman Pandora
the every gifted

Beautiful and possessed of all that the
Olympian Gods had bestowed upon her
Shameless and deceitful, with a liar's tongue
full of cruel longing and cares
and yet
irresistible clad in finery and a garland crown

Zeus gifted her to Prometheus' brother
though Prometheus had warned him not to accept
and Epimetheus married her
As dowry she carried a pithos
filled with sickness, trials and death
which she released upon the earth

Only Hope did not escape the jar
Hope, the means to rise above the evils of the world
The reassurance that where there is any evil
there will also be good.
Hope, who springs eternal.