Dialogue With My Belly

Belly, this book is almost finished. Is there anything else you want to tell the women?

Tell them there's nothing to fear. Tell them the story of "Pandora's Box."

Tell it with me?

You start, and I'll chime in.

As we hear it these days, "Pandora's box" means something that lets all manner of hell break loose when you look into it. Trouble, hardship, problems, difficulties all rise up and come at you. You wish you'd never opened up the subject, never looked into the box to begin with.

The story of Pandora's box, as recorded by the Greek poet Hesiod in the 8th century BCE, goes like this:

Zeus gave Pandora, a mortal woman, to Prometheus to be his wife. For a wedding gift, Zeus and his buddies gave Pandora a beautiful box and told her not to open it.

What a set-up!

Pandora opened the box anyway. Out flew war, pestilence, famine—all the ills and evils besetting humankind. She couldn't shut the lid fast enough to stop them from escaping. But one thing remained at the bottom of the box. What remained was hope.

Pretty wimpy.

As you see, this story blames women for all the troubles of the world.

What a low blow.

You said it.

What's the story on this story?

The story as we know it actually contains an error in translation. When Erasmus was translating the text from Greek into Latin in the 16th century, he took the word pithos, meaning "vase," for the word pyxis, meaning "box." Pandora's vase became Pandora's box.

What's important about that?

For ages, the vase has been a symbol of woman's womb, the belly's capacity for birth and regeneration. Pandora was not a ditz. Nor was she a mortal. Pandora, meaning "All-Giver," was another name for Rhea, Great Goddess, Mother of the Universe—the Power of Being imaged in female form. [Rhea's daughters, imaged as her breasts, were Hygeia and Panacea—like mother's milk, vital forces for healing and wholeness.]

"Pandora's box" was originally Rhea's vase, meaning her womb. Rhea's vase signified the source of all life. The story of "Pandora's Box" is one example of Western culture's process of demeaning women and our body's center. The story devalues woman's belly, taking it from sacred to shameful.

A woman's belly is not "Pandora's box"!

Woman's belly is Rhea's vase. There's nothing to be afraid of or ashamed of with respect to our bellies. We have every reason to feel proud. Our bellies are awesome.

Yes!

This is what I know: Reverence for woman's belly goes back to the beginning of time. Now, as always, our pro-creative power is the possibility for human survival. Woman's belly is the sacred source of life.