| 释义 |
Pandora1|pænˈdɔərə|
Also 7 Pandore.
[a. Gr. Πανδώρα lit. ‘all-gifted’, f. παν- all + δῶρον gift.]
In Greek mythology, the name of the first mortal woman, on whom, when made by Vulcan and brought to Epimetheus, all the gods and goddesses bestowed gifts.
1633J. Fisher Fuimus Troes i. iv. in Hazl. Dodsley XII. 461 To frame the like Pandore, The gods repine, and nature would grow poor. 1643Milton Divorce ii. iii, The Academics and Stoics, who knew not what a consummat and most adorned Pandora was bestow'd upon Adam.
Hence Pandora's box: the gift of Jupiter to Pandora, a box enclosing the whole multitude of human ills, which flew forth when the box was foolishly opened by Epimetheus; according to a later version, the box contained all the blessings of the gods, which, on its opening, escaped and were lost, with the exception of hope, which was at the bottom of the box. Hence in fig. and allusive uses.
1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 44, I cannot lyken our affecton better than..to Pandoraes boxe, lift vppe the lidde, out flyes the Deuill; shut it vp fast, it cannot hurt vs. 1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. i. 92 Such was..Pandora's tub. 1672Sir T. Browne Lett. Friend §14 And if Asia, Africa, and America should bring in their List [of diseases]. Pandoras Box would swell, and there must be a strange Pathology. 1679J. Goodman Penit. Pardoned ii. i. (1713) 264 There may be some hope left in the bottom of this Pandora's box of calamities. 1840Carlyle Heroes v. 268 The Eighteenth was a Sceptical Century; in which little word there is a whole Pandora's Box of miseries. 1886Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Paston Carew xlii, Pandora's box was opened for him, and all the pains and griefs his imagination had ever figured were abroad. |