"Pandora's Box"
“It was Pandora whose curiosity got the better of her”
Human Condition
"Arachne's nose and ears disappeared, her arms and legs became long and slender and new legs grew beside them, then her whole body shrank until she was just a tiny little spider"
Origin/Beginning
"Thus it was the muskrat...who brought from the bottom of the ocean the soil from which the earth was to grow"
Earth-Diver
"Because of the greatness of his Power, Maheo was not lonesome. His being was a Universe"
Supreme Being
"A wealthy noblewoman saw the strange party arrive and quickly shut the door to her house. The scorpions were enraged at her rude behavior"
What is the human condition?
“Because he had a kind heart...Prometheus gave man the secret of fire”
Nature of the Gods and Goddesses
"Arachne was rightly very proud of her work but she was also very arrogant"
Human Condition
"But the left-handed twin was stubborn. He went in the direction where he saw light. But he could not be born through his mother’s mouth or her nose. He was born through her left armpit, and killed her"
Unnatural Birth
"He gave them deer for clothing and food, porcupines to make their ornaments, the swift antelopes on the open plains, and the prairie dogs that burrowed in the earth"
Animal Human Relationships
"Isis heard the woman's cries for help. Although the woman was unkind to her, Isis could not bear the thought of the death of an innocent child and left with the woman to help her son"
Nature of the gods and goddesses
“Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late”
Moral Lesson
"When news of Arachne's bold claim reached Athena, she was very angry, but she decided to give the young woman a chance to redeem herself"
Nature of the gods and godesses
"The twins had creative powers. They took clay and modeled it into animals, and they gave these animals life. And in this they contended with one another"
Genealogy
"Maheo said once again. 'Let the earth be known as our Grandmother. and let the Grandmother who carries the earth be the only being who is at home beneath the water, or within the earth, or above the ground'"
Mother Earth Father Sky
"Whenever Isis left Horus in the evening while they were in hiding in the papyrus swamps near Buto, she was accompanied by seven scorpions"
What is custom or belief of the culture?
“As she raised the lid, out flew all the bad things in the world today - envy, sickness, hate, disease”
Origins/Beginnings also Human Condition
"For the rest of her life Arachne was to hang from a thread and to be a great weaver, and the descendants of Arachne still weave their magic webs all over the earth today"
What is Natural Phenomenon?
"The people do not know just how much the left-handed twin had to do with making man. Man was made of clay, like pottery, and baked in the fire"
Creation of Humans
"Maheo stretched out his hand and beckoned, 'Let the biggest and the swiftest try to find land first'"
"and neither man nor animal will eat a coot unless there is nothing else to eat"
Instruction Sin Consequence
"The noblewoman was humbled by Isis' unconditional kindness and offered all of her worldly wealth to Isis and the peasant girl who had shown hospitality to a stranger"
Moral Lesson
"Zeus gave the newlyweds a gift. Some say it was a jar. Some say it was a box"
Customs, Beliefs, Rituals
"Lydia had a reputation for producing splendid textiles and had some of the finest spinners and weavers in the world"
Historical event or place
"But when the sun slips down in the west at nightfall and the dome lifts to let it escape at the western rim, the people are again in the domain of the left-handed twin"
Night, Fear, Fire, Sin
"[Maheo] piled the mud on her rounded back. until he had made a hill. Under Maheo's hands, the hill grew and spread and flattened out"
Creation of Geographical Features
"[Tefen] crawled under the door of the noblewoman's house and stung her son...who was on the verge of death"
What is natural phenomenon?