Pandora's Box: The Changing Aspects of a Mythical Symbol (Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology)

Spotlighting examples of classical Greek art together with recent findings in anthropology, social history, psychology, classics and classical archaeology, this book offers a multi-faceted look at women in myth, ritual and daily life in classical Greece. In this catalogue, written to accompany an international travelling exhibition organized by the Walters Art Gallery, Reeder turns to classical Greek marbles, bronzes, terracottas and vases to help illustrate the ways in which women were perceived and how they lived. The discussion is enhanced through interpretive essays written for the catalogue by a group of eminent classicists and historians. Reeder finds a particular emphasis on myths dealing with the unmarried maiden and the difficulty of the transition to marriage and motherhood - as exemplified in the stories of Danae, Thetis, Atalanta and Amymone. She also explores images of containers and untamed animals as metaphors for women; rituals involving women, such as the wedding and the cult of the Little Bears at Brauron; the character and cult of goddesses; and the close association of women with textiles.