Opening Pandora's Box

Ferdie Addis

It has been one of those days. You've worked like a Trojan, displaying titanic strength and stoic endurance to overcome the Herculean labours that have faced you in order to meet that deadline. We regularly employ classically-derived expressions in our everyday language, yet many of us have little understanding of the origin of these common phrases. But an incomplete classical education need no longer be your Achilles heel. Opening Pandora's Box offers a light-hearted yet fascinating look at the stories behind the expressions. For example, did you know that the phrase 'the face that launched a thousand ships' originates from the story of the kidnapping of Helen of Troy, but the actual line comes from a poem by Christopher Marlowe? Opening Pandora's Box provides a useful introduction to classical mythology as well as giving an insight into our language.