Meet a Greek Peep: Elpis

In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mr. Portokalos says, “Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of the word is Greek.” Biography comes from two Greek words meaning “life writing.” As a time-traveling journalist, I get to meet famous figures from history and write stories about their lives. I am interested in Greek myths. Today I am going to write the biography of a lesser-known mythological character, Elpis. An alternate title to this could be "Elvis May Have Left the Building, but Elpis Has Not Left the Jar!" Read on to find out why.

To get back at his cousin Prometheus (that's a story for another day), Zeus trapped some spirits (the world’s worst sins and other problems), such as Greed, Lust, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Anger, Sloth, Sadness, Sickness, Toil, and Hope (Elpis), in a jar. He gave the jar to Pandora, the world’s first mortal woman. Zeus told Pandora not to open the jar because it contained the world’s worst miseries. Pandora was a very curious woman and after a while her curiosity overcame her. She opened the jar. Letting all of the spirits out, Pandora clamped the lid down just before Hope was released too. Pandora had just plagued mankind.

In Greek mythology, Elpis was Hope. She was possibly the daughter of Nyx and the mother of Pheme, the goddess of rumor and gossip. Hope was not necessarily a good thing to the Greeks. To them, Hope was viewed as expectation or an extension of suffering. People can hope for something and not necessarily get it, which can cause suffering. The opposite of Elpis was Moros, the spirit of doom and hopelessness (morose, meaning sullen and gloomy, comes from the Greek word Moros). Hope can be a good thing, too. Elpis alone remained in the bottle to comfort mankind. She is pictured as a woman holding flowers.

Works and Days is an 800-verse poem by the Greek poet Hesiod, who was popular around the same time as Homer. One of the more famous Pandora myths comes from this poem. Hesiod tells us that many evils were released, but one thing remained, Hope. Hesiod never explained why Hope was left behind, but he mentions that because of it was, Hope can never escape the mind of Zeus.

Only Elpis (Hope) remained there in an unbreakable home,
within under the rim of the great jar,
and did not fly out at the door;
for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her,
by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds.
But the rest, countless plagues (lugra),
wander amongst men;
for earth is full of evils and the sea is full.
Of themselves diseases (nosoi)
come upon men continually by day and by night,
bringing mischief to mortals silently;
for wise Zeus took away speech from them.
So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus.

Elpis interested me because no one really writes about her, although without Hope, no one would be here. For example, if there were not hope for religious freedom, the U.S.A. would not exist because people would have just given up and remained in Europe. And without Hope, nothing would have happened in Greek life. Hope gives people belief that there can be a positive outcome. I think it inspires action. The Greeks wouldn’t have fought for their land, worked to create democracy, and so much more because they would have just given up if they did not have Hope.

I have a question.  Do you think that hope is a positive thing or that it can cause suffering?

By: Adele Wells

Sources Used:

D'Aulaires, Ingri & Edgar. Book of Greek Myths. New York: Delacorte Press, 2003. Print.

"Elpis." Theoi Greek Mythology. n.d. Web. 26 March 2012

http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Elpis.html