World Stories: Pandora's Box

Long ago and far away, high up amongst the clouds of Mount Olympus, the Gods enjoyed a life of pleasure and quarrelling. Whenever they tired of quarrelling amongst themselves, they turned their attention to playing with people, as you might play with your toys.
One day, the Gods created a beautiful woman called Pandora and took her to Prometheus. He knew the Gods were angry with him and had stolen fire from them and given it to humans. Prometheus was frightened that the Gods were trying to trick him to get their own back and he decided to ignore her.
However his brother, Epimetheus, fell in love with the beautiful Pandora and decided to marry her. The couple lived happily together until…one day Mercury the messenger of the Gods arrived with a mysterious box. He asked Pandora and her husband to take care of it while he was away. Before he left he made them promise never to look inside it.
For days Pandora could not take her eyes off the box. All the time she wondered what was inside; could it be full of glittering jewels, glamorous dresses and golden coins? Whenever Epimetheus was away and no one was around, Pandora would creep up to the box and run her fingers over the polished wood and the golden clasp. However one day, when Epimetheus was out hunting, she could bear it no longer, her curiosity overcame her. Making sure she was not being watched, she crept up to the box and gingerly opened the clasp. Slowly lifting the lid – she looked inside.
But to her surprise there were no glittering jewels, glamorous dresses, golden coins – instead the Gods had filled the box with all evils now known to mankind. Disease, misery and death swooped and buzzed around stinging her. Pandora screamed and screamed with pain and fear. Epimetheus heard her cries as he rode into the courtyard. Flinging himself from his horse, he ran to her aid, taking her into his arms, he comforted her as the evils flew out of the castle and spread across the land.
Between her sobs Pandora and Epimetheus heard a tiny little voice calling from the box. ‘Let me out!’, ‘let me out!’. Believing that nothing inside the box could be worse than the horrors released, they opened the lid once more.
All that remained was a tiny crumpled butterfly, shivering in the corner – slowly it unfolded its sparkling wings and brushed them against Pandora, healing her wounds. The beautiful butterfly was – hope, which Mercury had hidden amongst the evils, taking pity on mankind when he realised what the Gods were plotting.

Guy Fawkes Night

Guy Fawkes was born in April 1570 in York. Although his immediate family were all Protestants, in keeping with the accepted religious practice in England at the time, his maternal grandparents were 'recusant' Catholics, who refused to attend Protestant services. When Guy was eight, his father died and his widowed mother married a Catholic, Dionis Baynbrigge. It was these early influences that were to forge Fawkes' convictions as an adult.

By the time he was 21 his father had left him and gone to Europe to fight for Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch republic in the Eighty Years War. His military career went well and by 1603 he had been recommended for a captaincy. He had also adopted the Italian variant of his name, becoming known as 'Guido'.

In the same year, he travelled to Spain to petition the king, Philip III, for support in fomenting a rebellion in England against the "heretic" James I. Despite the fact that Spain and Britain were still, technically, at war, Philip refused.

It was while on campaign fighting for Spain in Flanders that Fawkes was approached by Thomas Wintour, one of the plotters, and asked to join what would become known as the Gunpowder Plot, under the leadership of Robert Catesby.

His expertise with gunpowder gave him a key role in the conspiracy, to source and ignite the explosive. But 18 months of careful planning was foiled with just hours to go, when he was arrested at midnight on 4 November 1605 beneath the House of Lords. Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder were found stacked in the cellar directly below where the king would have been sitting for the opening of parliament the next day. Fawkes was subjected to various tortures, including the rack.

Fawkes was sentenced to the traditional traitors' death - to be 'hanged, drawn and quartered'. In the event, he jumped from the gallows, breaking his own neck and thereby avoiding the horror of being cut down while still alive, having his testicles cut off and his stomach opened and his guts spilled before his eyes. His lifeless body was hacked into quarters and his remains sent to "the four corners of the kingdom" as a warning to others.

Through the centuries the Guy Fawkes legend has become ever-more entrenched, and by the 19th Century it was his effigy that was being placed on the bonfires that were lit annually to commemorate the failure of the plot.

Dirty Car Art

Recently new forms of art are born, like body painting, sand animation, art with books or pancake and also the dirty car art.

Scott Wade is known internationally as "The dirty car artist". His works has been seen on television in over 20 countries and in print media throughout the world. 

Dirty Car Art wasn't an "ahah" moment. It evolved from living on a long, dirt road, where the family cars were always covered with a fine layer of dust. In this case, limestone and clay from the road base of Central Texas, where Scott lives. Having such a great canvas, Scott couldn't resist drawing on the windows (particularly the rear window, which gets the most dust), much as you might write "wash me", with a finger drawing a fat line. His early drawings were usually funny faces; his dad was an amateur cartoonist, and Scott developed his own style of cartooning. Eventually though, he became curious: could he expand the visual vocabulary from the fat line? He started experimenting with using a fingernail to get a finer line, the pads of his fingers brushed lightly to create some shading.

One day, having finished a popsicle, he took the chewed end of the stick out of his mouth and tried it as a brush. Soon he was trying all his brushes to see what effects they could achieve. He started photographing and emailing the resulting drawing to his friends. One of those emails was forwarded to a local columnist, which resulted in the media wanting to showcase his work, which turned into opportunities to create his special kind of art all over the world!