rs and bright waters and earthly maidens are lovely. Zeus
smiled to himself when he looked upon her, and he called to Hermes who
knew all the ways of the earth, and he put her into the charge of
Hermes. Also he gave Hermes a great jar to take along; this jar was
Pandora's dower.

Epimetheus lived in a deep-down valley. Now one day, as he was sitting
on a fallen pillar in the ruined place that was now forsaken by the
rest of the Titans, he saw a pair coming toward him. One had wings, and
he knew him to be Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The other was a
maiden. Epimetheus marveled at the crown upon her head and at her
lovely garments. There was a glint of gold all around her. He rose from
where he sat upon the broken pillar and he stood to watch the pair.
Hermes, he saw, was carrying by its handle a great jar.

In wonder and delight he looked upon the maiden. Epimetheus had seen no
lovely thing for ages. Wonderful indeed was this Golden Maid, and as
she came nearer the charm that was on her lips and in her eyes came to
the Earth-born One, and he smiled with more and more delight.

Hermes came and stood before him. He also smiled, but his smile had
something baleful in it. He put the hands of the Golden Maid into the
great soft hand of the Titan, and he said, "O Epimetheus, Father Zeus
would be reconciled with thee, and as a sign of his good will he sends
thee this lovely goddess to be thy companion."

Oh, very foolish was Epimetheus the Earth-born One! As he looked upon
the Golden Maid who was sent by Zeus he lost memory of the wars that
Zeus had made upon the Titans and the Elder Gods; he lost memory of his
brother chained by Zeus to the rock; he lost memory of the warning that
his brother, the wisest of all beings, had sent him. He took the hands
of Pandora, and he thought of nothing at all in all the world but her.
Very far away seemed the voice of Hermes saying, "This jar, too, is
from Olympus; it has in it Pandora's dower."

The jar stood forgotten for long, and green plants grew over it while
Epimetheus walked in the garden with the Golden Maid, or watched her
while she gazed on herself in the stream, or searched in the untended
places for the fruits that the Elder Gods would eat, when they feasted
with the Titans in the old days, before Zeus had come to his power. And
lost to Epimetheus was the memory of his brother now suffering upon the
rock because of the gift he had given to men.

And Pandora, knowing