When Prometheus stole fire from the heavens and gave it back to men, angry Zeus was determined to punish mankind for receiving this stolen gift. And his punishment had to be a beautiful and enchanting one, but so deceitful that men would welcome it as gift. It was a woman, the first woman.
According to the myth, Zeus commanded Hephaestus to create Pandora, a beautiful but wicked woman whose children would torment the race of men. After Hephaestus molded her from clay and fire, Athena clothed her in a silver gown and every Olympian god offered her a unique gift. Athena taught her needlecraft and weaving, Aphrodite shed grace upon her head but Hermes gift was different… Hermes gave her cunningness and treachery. He gave her the power of speech: putting in her "lies and crafty words" He was also the one who named her “Pandora”, the all-gifted.
He then sent her to Epimetheus to be his wife. Prometheus, his bother warned him not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but he ignored the warnings. Zeus also offered Pandora a sealed box and he demanded she did not open it for any reason. Of course Pandora could not overcome her curiosity to find out what lies inside the box. Not after Zeus’s “warning”… When she opened the box, toil, sickness and diseases and myriad other pains were spread across the earth and the sea. Pandora closed the box in-time only to keep one thing contained, hope.
Cassandra, whose name became a synonym of prophet of bad tidings, was the fourth and most beautiful daughter of Priam, the king of Troy.
Echo drama begins later when she falls in love with Narcissus, the handsome but vain son of the Nymph Liriope of Thespia. Echo would follow him everywhere longing to address him but would be unable to speak.
Psyche, whose name means soul in Greek was neither a goddess nor a divine creature of mythology. She was just a woman, but an extraordinary woman.
Harmonia in Greek mythology is the goddess of harmony and unity, the exact opposite of Eris. She is the patron goddess of the love that unites all people, the embodiment of order and civic unity.
Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the most talented Athenian craftsman of his time.
Zagori is an area of great natural beauty and unique architecture in the Pindus Mountains in Epirus in Northwestern Greece. The area is of about 1.000 square kilometers and contains 46 villages. Zagoria villages is called by Greeks “Zagorochoria” meaning the villages behind the mountain.
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In 1989, Professor of Byzantine Studies, Helen Ahrweiler is appointed Chairman of the Cultural Centre Pompidou in Paris