"A present was delivered to man. One that he looked on with delight, and took to his heart. A present that has punished him ever since. It was an object of unending torture; still, a torture that poor weak man courted."
"A present, Mother?"
"Yes, he sent to man Pandora. Pandora, the first woman. And
since that day man has found himself unable to live without her.
She torments him, tantalizes him, arouses in him all emotions.
Yet he turns again and again to her." She laughed.
"Just as Athena torments you, yet you turn to her again and again!"
"You tease me, Mother?"
"No, the legends say it's true. Woman was man's first punishment. Disguised as a gift! Well, well, perhaps your Athena will be more the gift, less the punishment!" She tousled his hair, hummed to herself, glanced in amusement over her shoulder at him, and laughed.
Demo smiled. Such pleasant punishment.
Yet, truly, how much pain. The wanting, the loneliness, the feeling of emptiness when she was not near - before he met her they did not exist. Now they were his constant companions.
A coin has two sides.
Gift and punishment indeed!