Pandora's box should be the more dreary and depressing." One's interpretation hangs on two related questions: First, how are we to render "elpis", the Greek word usually translated as "hope"? Second, does the jar preserve "Elpis" for men, or keep "Elpis" away from men? The first question might confuse the non-specialist. But as with most ancient Greek words, "elpis" can be translated a number of ways. A number of scholars prefer the neutral translation of "expectation." But expectation of what? Classical authors use the word "elpis" to mean "expectation of bad," as well as "expectation of good." Statistical analysis demonstrates that the
Pandora dangerous type of beauty, generally naked or semi-naked. She is only differentiated from other paintings or statues of such females by being given the attribute of a jar or, increasingly in the 19th-century, a straight-sided box. As well as the many European paintings of her from this period, there are examples in sculptures by Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel (1819),John Gibson (1856), Pierre Loison (1861, see above) and Chauncy Bradley Ives (1871). There is an additional reason why Pandora should appear nude, in that it was a theological commonplace going back to the early Church Fathers that the Classical myth of Pandora made