Pandora’s Box vs. A Can of Worms

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. This is Peggy from Albuquerque.

Hi, Peggy.

Hi, Peggy. How are you doing?

Hi, I’m doing great, thanks.

What’s going on?

The other day I was listening to somebody on your show, and I don’t remember what exactly he was talking about, but he was describing a scene at the dinner table and talking about certain conversations. And he said we didn’t want to open that particular, and in my mind I finished the phrase for him, but instead he said Pandora’s box. And I thought, now, wait a minute.

So I’m calling to ask you guys, what is the difference between a can of worms and a Pandora’s box? Are they different in your mind?

Well, they are in my mind.

How so?

I guess I think of, Martha, I know you’re a Greek and Latin scholar, so you can probably tell the story way better than I can, but there’s some story about a woman named Pandora who was given a box that she wasn’t supposed to open, and she opened it anyway. And out came all kinds of bad things.

Yep.

Yep.

That’s pretty much it. In the original story, it was a jar. And it had all these bad things in it that plagued mankind. Bad, bad things. But the one thing that was left in the bottom of the jar after all these terrible things flew out, famine, pestilence, all this terrible stuff, the one thing that was left was hope or expectation down at the bottom of Pandora’s box or jar.

Yeah, it’s kind of a beautiful story, but it’s sort of an explanation for all the terrible things that happen to human beings. You know, the Greeks were very fatalistic, and this was one story that told, it was sort of like original sin, you know, in biblical tradition. This is why all the bad stuff happens. A way of absolving humanity of its own guilt and responsibility?

Well, a way of explaining that bad things happen to good people and that kind of thing. And then on the other hand, you have a can of worms. And so is that the same thing to you?

No.

I realized as I was thinking about this, I realized in my mind, a Pandora’s box is unknown. You don’t know what’s in there. But there’s a good likelihood that when you open it up, you’ll get a bad surprise. A can of worms, you know what’s in there. If it’s a can of worms, you know it’s unpleasant.

Right.

It’s like if you have a particular topic, you’re talking to your in-laws about religion, say, when you don’t agree. You know that’s going to open a big old can of worms. You know it’s going to be unpleasant. You know you don’t really want to go there. But it’s known, and at least in my mind, that’s the difference. It’s a known unpleasantness versus an unknown, possibly unpleasant.

But I don’t know.

Yeah, Peggy, I think that you keyed in on exactly the thing that distinguishes them, because Pandora was told, don’t open that, don’t open that, don’t open that. And of course, her curiosity got the better of her. And so she did. But a can of worms, you’re right. You know that there’s icky stuff in there.

It’s interesting that he said a particular can of worms. I’m picturing a pantry with you.

Well, different kinds. This is the politics one.

This is right. This is the he shouldn’t have married that woman one.

Right.

Marinara. This is the why don’t I have grad kids one. Garlic and olive oil, clams.

And what about a barrel of monkeys? Would you compare a barrel of monkeys to a can of worms in Pandora’s box?

Oh, boy. Is that just fun? That’s just a fun kind of chaos and disaster, right?

Right, yeah.

And what about a kettle of fish? A barrel of monkeys is kindergartners with caffeine. And a kettle of fish, I don’t know, I usually hear that and it’s a fine kettle of fish. It sort of means an interesting state of affairs or something. It doesn’t quite have the same danger connotation to me.

Right. So I guess your question is, was that guy using Pandora’s box incorrectly then?

Yeah.

Yeah, he was saying that he didn’t want to go there because it was a difficult… But he said that he didn’t want to open that particular Pandora’s box, and it sounds a little mixed metaphorical.

Yeah, how many Pandoras do you have? How many boxes did Pandora have?

Well, and the whole can of worms thing, you know, I’m not even sure where that comes from. When I was a kid, we used to go fishing. My dad would get worms, sometimes purchase them from the hardware store, usually in a little box. And that’s how I picture a can of worms, just some kind of dirt and worms wiggling around in there. But I don’t really know.

I think part of the can of worms is not knowing where one worm ends and another one begins.

Yeah, it’s all writhing. And it’s kind of disgusting and creepy. And even though, yeah.

Yeah, just this gross mess of problems in there. Well, this is a nice way to distinguish them. In Pandora’s box, there are unknown problems. Can of worms are pretty much known problems.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you. This was a nice exploration of two terms, Peggy. Thank you very much. I appreciate your help, and thanks for your show. It’s wonderful.

Bye-bye.

Thanks.

Bye.

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