Hope, the vilest of all evils.
When Pandora opened her jar, the cursed gift from the gods, Hope was to exit it last. Only after all the other evils were set out free to rummage the world, would Hope be ready to go out in triumph.
We humans remember this event; yet we have forgotten its truthful meaning. For long, mankind was enslaved to Hope, thinking that she was a remedy for the other evils.
But you, who have eyes to see, will see. This lie be forsaken - for was she not in the jar at all? This lie be forsaken - for is it not a deed of Hope herself? The ultimate deception, history wronged and twisted.
The only reason Hope was in the jar was this: she is an evil no lesser than the others. The gods made no mistake. Hope was to exit last for she was put in there first. And first they put the greatest of evils. The most subtle, the slyest of all, because it pretends to be not an evil at all. Hope. She deceives us: she pretends to be on our side, she pretends to be with us the misers, the sufferers, and we are caught in her vile trap. And we have been deceived and blinded, we have become oblivious to her primordial evil!
The gods have tricked us. Lament then, o Fate, mightiest of all, lament with us!
For Hope is still here, feeding on our suffering. She hides in us and destroys us slowly on the inside. She increases our misery; it is she who makes our pain truly unbearable. Hope is what brings all other evils to completion and makes us suffer them twice over: once because they have happened, and once more because she has deluded us to see a world deceptively close, a world where those evils are no longer.
Hope, the ultimate deceiver, the creator of illusions! The one that makes us stick to her, and not abandon her sooner!
Listen, unfortunate ones: here is why Hope was put in the jar first. Hope - the greatest evil, the very one that the gods couldn’t forget. For it was only Hope that would make the sons of man suffer differently from all other creatures on Gaia’s breast. For these mortals dared to lift their heads and proclaim they were different! Let them, then, be different!
And so we, unfortunate ones, were bestowed the crown of all evils.
But listen, sufferers! Abandon Hope! Forget her, or else you won’t find a way out of this misery. Even though you see pain that suffocates you, don’t let your eyes dwell on this worst of poisons, Hope, the companion of every evil, telling you that the pain could know an end. Abandon Hope, don’t listen to her! As Odysseus passed by the sirens unharmed, so you should pass by Hope unharmed, oblivious to her cries. Only once you have left Hope behind, will the suffering no longer be the torment it was. Only once you accept the deluge of suffering will the worst of pains be no more. Know, then, that the Moiras have been good to you.
Don’t hope this and don’t hope that. Things are as the Fates set them to be. Don’t hope that your beloved will return. Don’t wake everyday, sending prayers that he will. Don’t be a slave of hope, but accept things as they are and free yourself from Hope’s chains. And the other evils won’t dare touch you as they did before. Let go of Hope! Put her in a jar, seal it, and never open it.
Feast then, and pour a libation! Pandora can be happy again.