Works and Days men and gods were dividing a feast, and for his subsequent theft of fire. In the "Works and Days" Hesiod proceeds directly to the theft of fire and punishment. Zeus instructed the gods to build an "evil" for mankind: that is, Pandora, whom Prometheus's brother Epimetheus accepted from Hermes despite his brother's warnings never to accept gifts from the gods. Before Pandora's arrival, man had lived free from evils, toil and illness, but she had been given a jar which contained all these curses; this she opened, releasing all its contents but Elpis (, "Hope" or "Expectation"). The Myth of
Mythology in the Low Countries more mysterious goddess recorded in the 1st century AD. The Dutch words "witte wieven" and "wittewijven" in Dutch dialects means "white women". They were spirits of the women who died of heartbreak after their men had been untrue to them. They would live on in the mists and appear when it was night and misty. They would attack men who were untrue to their women by getting them lost in the mists. Nature spirits: The following beings may have originated as deities or supernatural beings in mythology, and later recharacterized as nature spirits during the Middle Ages; The Dutch like