Hope, with out some hope you cease to really live. The miracle of the everyday turns into deadening routine. Perseverance and hope are intertwined, for to have hope implies a certain spirit of doing. In the classic Greek Mythology Pandora, the first woman opens that jar, eating of the apple as it were, and all the worlds’ evil is let lose. She slams the lid on, horrified at what she has done. Hesiod’s poem “Works and Days” Pandora is created by Zeus as retaliation for Prometheus’s gift of fire.

Hesiod closes with this moral: "Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of Zeus."

There are hints at much older myths wrapped inside Hesiod’s tale. Interpretation comes down to this: is the jar a prison or a pantry?

The question of why this jar ~pottery interestingly forged from what made woman, dirt and Prometheus’s gift fire~ so full of all the worlds evils contains a boon, hope. If one looks at hope, elpis in Greek, as the expectation of evil then leaving Hope trapped in the jar makes sense. Imagine a life lived constantly expecting evil at every turn. Despair indeed. If you interpret elpis, hope, as the expectation of good, then leaving it trapped in the jar means life to be hopeless. On the other hand, perhaps that we are each just hopelessly human. I am going with hope as the expectation of evil, trapped away so I may see possibility.

In later versions of the myth Pandora recognizing the despair of men, returns to the jar to free Hope, who seems sick and weak, but is more potent than all the evils.

The dictionary definition is dry, sparse, with little to inspire or ponder over with philosophy

:v. hoped, hop·ing, hopes v.intr. 1. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment. 2. Archaic To have confidence; trust. v.tr. 1. To look forward to with confidence or expectation: We hope that our children will be successful. 2. To expect and desire. n. 1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment. 2. Something that is hoped for or desired: Success is our hope. 3. One that is a source of or reason for hope: the team's only hope for victory. 4. often Hope Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help. 5. Archaic Trust; confidence.

Wait… there is that archaic definition, Trust and confidence. There is room for thought there.

I hope that tomorrow is better than today.

With Thanks to Wikipedia for the myth detail and the free dictionary for the definition, this is my last post on hope. A fitting tribute and remembrance to those victims, families and friends of the 9/11 catastrophe ~HOPE.