title: The Dark Crystal

text: The Dark Crystal is a 1982 dark fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. It stars the voices of Stephen Garlick, Lisa Maxwell, Billie Whitelaw, Percy Edwards, and Barry Dennen. The film was produced by ITC Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company and distributed by Universal Pictures. The plot revolves around Jen and Kira, two Gelflings on a quest to restore balance to the world of Thra and overthrow the evil, ruling Skeksis by restoring a powerful broken Crystal.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: It was marketed as a family film, but was notably darker than the creators' previous material. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking for its time, with most creatures, like the Gelflings, requiring around four puppeteers to achieve full manipulation. The primary concept artist was fantasy illustrator Brian Froud, famous for his distinctive fairy and dwarf designs. Froud also collaborated with Henson for his next project, the 1986 film "Labyrinth".


title: The Dark Crystal

text: "The Dark Crystal" was produced by Gary Kurtz, while the screenplay was written by David Odell, with whom Henson previously worked as a staff writer for "The Muppet Show". The film score was composed by Trevor Jones. The film initially received mixed reviews from mainstream critics; while being criticized for its darker, more dramatic tone in contrast to Henson's previous works, it was praised for its narrative, aesthetic, and characters. Over the years, it has been re-evaluated by critics and has garnered a cult following.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: A thousand years ago on the planet Thra, two new races appeared when a Shard was shattered from the Crystal of Truth: the cruel Skeksis, who use continued corruption of the Crystal to extend their lives, and the gentle urRu, more commonly known as Mystics, who make their home in the Valley of Stones to await their destiny. The leader of the Mystics, the Master UrSu, raises a young Gelfling named Jen whose clan were slaughtered by the Skeksis. As the Great Conjunction of Thra's three suns draws near, a dying UrSu instructs Jen to fulfil a prophecy to heal the Crystal by first retrieving the Shard from Aughra. If Jen fails to complete his quest before the three suns meet, the Skeksis will rule forever. As UrSu passes, the Skeksis' Emperor, skekSo, also dies, leaving the position for the leader vacant. The Chamberlain, skekSil, and the Garthim Master, skekUng, challenge each other in a "Trial by Stone" for succession, resulting in skekUng defeating skekSil. SkekSil is stripped of his robes and banished, while skekUng is proclaimed the new emperor. When the Skeksis learn of Jen's existence, they send their army of giant crab-like Garthim to capture him, with the cunning skekSil following.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Jen meets Aughra and enters her orrery, which she uses to predict the heavens, and she explains about the Conjunction before having Jen select the correct Shard. Before Aughra can explain Jen's mission, the Garthim arrive and destroy the orrery, taking Aughra prisoner as Jen flees. Hearing the call of the Crystal, the Mystics leave their valley to return to the Castle of the Crystal. On his journey through a forest swamp, Jen meets Kira, another surviving Gelfling. The two learn more about each other when they accidentally "dreamfast", sharing each other's memories. They stay for a night with the Podlings who raised Kira, only for them and Kira's pet Fizzgig to flee when the Garthim raid the village. They are nearly caught, but skekSil intervenes, keeping the Garthim from pursuing them.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Jen and Kira discover a ruined Gelfling civilization with ancient writing describing the prophecy: "When single shines the triple sun, what was sundered and undone shall be whole, the two made one by Gelfling hand or else by none." They are interrupted by skekSil, who reveals the prophecy was the reason for the Gelfling genocide while trying to trick them into coming with him to the castle. But the Gelflings run off and reach the castle on Landstriders, intercepting the Garthim that attacked Kira's village. While trying to free the captured Podlings, Kira, Jen, and Fizzgig descend to the Castle's dry moat (revealing Kira has wings) and use the catacombs to gain access. But they are intercepted by skekSil, who attempts to drag them to the other Skeksis when they refuse him further. Jen stabs skekSil's hand with the Shard in defiance (which leads to his Mystic counterpart, urSol, to receive a similar wound on his), and skekSil, in a fit of rage, buries Jen in a cave-in and takes Kira. SkekSil is reinstated as Chamberlain and gives Kira to the Scientist, skekTek, to be drained of her life essence for the Skeksis to drink and regain their youth. Aughra, imprisoned in the Scientist's laboratory, tells Kira to call the captive animals for help; they break free in response and free Kira while causing skekTek to fall down the crystal shaft to his death. At that moment, his Mystic counterpart, urTih, vanishes in a burst of flame. Aughra frees herself soon after Kira leaves and before Jen arrives.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The three suns begin to align as the Gelflings reunite at the Crystal Chamber and the Skeksis gather for the ritual that will grant them immortality. When they are discovered and the Garthim attack, Jen leaps onto the Crystal but drops the Shard. Kira takes it after Fizzgig is thrown down the shaft by skekUng, but is saved by Aughra shortly after. Kira throws the Shard back to Jen and is fatally stabbed by the Ritual-Master, skekZok. The heartbroken Jen plunges the Shard into the Dark Crystal, fulfilling the prophecy. The Garthim disintegrate and the Podling slaves regain their essence while the dark stone covering the Castle crumbles away to reveal a crystalline structure. The urRu arrive and use the Crystal to merge themselves and the Skeksis into the beings they once were: the angelic urSkeks. Ungim the urSkeks' leader explains to Jen they had mistakenly shattered the Crystal 1,000 years ago, splitting them into two races and decimating Thra, and that Jen's courage and Kira's sacrifice have restored them. The urSkeks revive Kira in gratitude and then ascend to a higher level of existence, leaving the Crystal of Truth to Jen and Kira on the now-rejuvenated Thra.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Henson's inspiration for the visual aspects of the film came around 1975–76, after he saw an illustration by Leonard B. Lubin in a 1975 edition of Lewis Carroll’s poetry showing crocodiles living in a palace and wearing elaborate robes and jewelry. The film's conceptual roots lay in Henson's short-lived "The Land of Gorch", which also took place in an alien world with no human characters. According to co-director Frank Oz, Henson's intention was to "get back to the darkness of the original Grimms' Fairy Tales", as he believed that it was unhealthy for children to never be afraid.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Henson formulated his ideas into a 25-page story he entitled "The Crystal", which he wrote whilst snowed in at an airport hotel. Henson's original concept was set in a world called Mithra, a wooded land with talking mountains, walking boulders and animal-plant hybrids. The original plot involved a malevolent race called the Reptus group, which took power in a coup against the peaceful Eunaze, led by Malcolm the Wise. The last survivor of the Eunaze was Malcolm's son Brian, who was adopted by the Bada, Mithra's mystical wizards.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: This draft contained elements in the final product, including the three races, the two funerals, the quest, a female secondary character, the Crystal, and the reunification of the two races during the Great Conjunction. "Mithra" was later abbreviated to "Thra", due to similarities the original name had with an ancient Persian deity. The character Kira was also at that point called Dee.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Most of the philosophical undertones of the film were inspired from Jane Roberts's "Seth Material". Henson kept multiple copies of the book "Seth Speaks", and insisted that Froud and screenwriter David Odell read it prior to collaborating for the film. Odell later wrote that Aughra's line "He could be anywhere then," upon being told by Jen that his Master was dead, could not have been written without having first read Roberts' material.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The Bada were renamed "Ooo-urrrs", which Henson would pronounce "very slowly and with a deep resonant voice." Odell simplified the spelling to urRu, though they were ultimately named Mystics in the theatrical cut. The word "Skeksis" was initially meant to be the plural, with "Skesis" being singular, though this was dropped early in the filming process. Originally, Henson wanted the Skeksis to speak their own constructed language, with the dialogue subtitled in English.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Accounts differ as to who constructed the language, and on what it was based. Gary Kurtz stated that the Skeksis language was conceived by author Alan Garner, who based it on Ancient Egyptian, while Odell stated it was he who created it, and that it was formed from Indo-European roots. This idea was dropped after test screening audiences found the captions too distracting, but the original effect can be observed in selected scenes on the various DVD releases. The language of the Podlings was based on Serbo-Croatian, with Kurtz noting that audience members fluent in Polish, Russian and other Slavic languages could understand individual words, but not whole sentences.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The film was shot at Elstree Studios from April–September 1981, and exterior scenes were shot in the Scottish Highlands; Gordale Scar, North Yorkshire, England; and Twycross, Leicestershire, England. Once filming was completed, the film's release was delayed after Lew Grade sold ITC Entertainment to Robert Holmes à Court, who was skeptical of the film's potential, due to the bad reactions at the preview and the need to re-voice the film's soundtrack. The film was afforded minimal advertisement and release until Henson bought it from Holmes à Court and funded its release with his own money.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Brian Froud was chosen as concept artist after Henson saw one of his paintings in the book "Once upon a time". The characters in the film are elaborate puppets, and none are based on humans or any other specific Earth creature. Before its release, "The Dark Crystal" was billed as the first live-action film without any human beings on screen, and "a showcase for cutting-edge animatronics".


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The hands and facial features of the groundbreaking animatronic puppets in the film were controlled with relatively primitive rods and cables, although radio control later took over many of the subtler movements. Human performers inside the puppets supplied basic movement for the larger creatures, which in some cases was dangerous or exhausting; for example, the Garthim costumes were so heavy (approx. 70 pounds) that the performers had to be hung up on a rack every few minutes to rest while still inside the costumes. Swiss mime Jean-Pierre Amiel led a team of dancers, acrobats and others in performing the Mystics, with Amiel himself performing the Weaver Mystic.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: When conceptualizing the Skeksis, Henson had in mind the seven deadly sins, though because there were 10 Skeksis, some sins had to be invented or used twice. Froud originally designed them to resemble deep sea fish, but later designed them as "part reptile, part predatory bird, part dragon", with an emphasis on giving them a "penetrating stare." Each Skeksis was conceived as having a different "job" or function, thus each puppet was draped in multicolored robes meant to reflect their personalities and thought processes.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Each Skeksis suit required a main performer, whose arm would be extended over his or her head in order to operate the creature's facial movements, while the other arm operated its left hand. Another performer would operate the Skeksis' right arm. A team of four technicians operated the Skeksis' hand and face animatronics. The Skeksis performers compensated for their lack of vision by having a monitor tied to their chests. The Chamberlain Skeksis, in particular, was built with 21 electronic components.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: In designing the Mystics, Froud portrayed them as being more connected to the natural world than their Skeksis counterparts. Henson intended to convey the idea that they were purged of all materialistic urges, yet were incapable of acting in the real world. Froud also incorporated geometric symbolism throughout the film in order to hint at the implied unity of the two races. The Mystics were the hardest creatures to perform, as the actors had to walk on their haunches with their right arm extended forward, with the full weight of the head on it. Henson stated that he could hold a position in a Mystic costume for only 5–10 seconds.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The Gelflings were designed and sculpted by Wendy Midener. They were difficult to perform, as they were meant to be the most human creatures in the film, and thus their movements, particularly their gait, had to be as realistic as possible. During scenes when the Gelflings' legs were off-camera, the performers walked on their knees in order to make the character's movements more lifelike. According to Odell, the character Jen was Henson's way of projecting himself into the film. Jen was originally meant to be blue, in homage to the Hindu deity Rama, but this idea was scrapped early on.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Aughra was originally envisioned as a "busy, curious little creature" called Habeetabat, though the name was rejected by Froud, who found the name too similar to Habitat, a retailer he despised. The character was re-envisioned as a seer or prophetess, and renamed Aughra. In selecting a voice actor for Aughra, Henson was inspired by Zero Mostel's performance as a "kind of insane bird trying to overcome Tourettes syndrome" on "Watership Down". Although the character was originally voiced by Oz, Henson wanted a female voice, and subsequently selected Billie Whitelaw.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The character Fizzgig was invented by Oz, who wanted a character who served the same function as the Muppet poodle Foo-Foo, feeling that, like Miss Piggy, the character Kira needed an outlet for her caring, nurturing side. The character's design was meant to convey the idea of a "boyfriend-repellant", to contrast the popular idea that it is easier to form a bond with a member of the opposite sex with the assistance of a cute dog.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The Podlings were envisioned as people in complete harmony with their natural surroundings, thus Froud based their design on that of potatoes. Their village was modeled on the Henson family home.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: In designing the Garthim, Froud took inspiration from the discarded carapaces of his and Henson's lobster dinners. The Garthim were first designed three years into the making of the film, and were made largely of fiberglass. Each costume weighed around 70 lbs (32 kg), thus Garthim performers still in costume had to frequently be suspended on racks in order to recuperate.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: "The Dark Crystal" was the last film in which cinematographer Oswald Morris, BSC, involved himself in before retiring. He shot all the footage with a "light flex", a unit placed in front of the camera which gave a faint color tint to each scene in order to give the film a more fairy tale atmosphere similar to Froud's original paintings.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The film's soundtrack was composed by Trevor Jones, who became involved before shooting had started. Jones initially wanted to compose a score which reflected the settings' oddness by using acoustical instruments, electronics and building structures. This was scrapped in favor of an orchestral score performed by the London Symphony Orchestra once Gary Kurtz became involved, as it was felt that an unusual score would alienate audiences. The main theme of the film is a composite of the Skeksis' and Mystics' themes. Jones wrote the baby Landstrider theme in honor of his newly born daughter.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: "The Dark Crystal" was released in 858 theaters in North America on December 17, 1982 and finished third for the weekend with a gross of $4,657,335, behind "Tootsie" and "The Toy", performing better than some people expected. In its initial weekends, it had a limited appeal with some audiences for various reasons, including parental concerns about its dark nature, creative connections with Henson's family-friendly Muppet franchise. In its third weekend, it moved up to second place nationally with a gross of $5,405,071 from 1,052 screens. It made $40,577,001 in its box office run, managing to turn a profit. The film became the 16th highest-grossing film of 1982 within North America. To date, it technically remains as one of the highest-grossing puppet animated films of all time, particularly for its domestic gross.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The film received a mixed response upon its original release, but has earned a more positive reception in later years, becoming a favorite with fans of Henson and fantasy. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" negatively reviewed the film, describing it as a "watered down J. R. R. Tolkien... without charm as well as interest." Kevin Thomas gave it a more positive assessment in the "Los Angeles Times": "Unlike many screen fantasies, "The Dark Crystal" casts its spell from its very first frames and proceeds so briskly that it's over before you realize it. You're left with the feeling that you have just awakened from a dream." Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine wrote: "The invention is impressive, but there is little indication of the Henson-Oz trademark: a sense of giddy fun. Audiences nourished on the sophisticated child's play of the "Sesame Street" Muppets and the music-hall camaraderie of "The Muppet Show" may not be ready to relinquish pleasure for awe as they enter "The Dark Crystal"s palatial cavern." "Variety" praised the film as "a dazzling technological and artistic achievement ...that could teach a lesson in morality to youngsters at the same time it is entertaining their parents."


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" wrote the main characters were "the softest and potentially weakest figures" in the film, but nevertheless, ""The Dark Crystal" leaves no doubt that Jim Henson and his colleagues have reached a point where they can create and sustain a powerfully enchanting form of cinematic fantasy." Gene Siskel of "The Chicago Tribune" awarded the film out of four stars in which he felt "...the resultant absence of dramatic tension cripples 'Crystal,' which doesn't have much going for it save for weird characters, who look like they just walked in from the bar scene in "Star Wars". In fact, a lot of this movie looks like it was ripped off from "Star Wars"." Colin Greenland, reviewing for "Imagine" magazine, stated that ""The Dark Crystal" is a technical masterpiece with splendid special effects work by a team two dozen strong. It may be that they did well to keep the story simple and then lavish a wealth of detail on it, rather than go for a more complicated fantasy and fail."


title: The Dark Crystal

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: ""The Dark Crystal"s narrative never quite lives up to the movie's visual splendor, but it remains an admirably inventive and uniquely intense entry in the Jim Henson canon." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Dark Crystal

text: "The Dark Crystal" was first released on VHS, Betamax, and CED by Thorn EMI Video in 1983. The company's successor HBO Video re-released it on VHS in 1988 and also released it in widescreen on LaserDisc for the first time. On July 29, 1994, Jim Henson Video (through Disney's Buena Vista Home Video) re-released the film again on VHS and on a new widescreen LaserDisc. On October 5, 1999, Columbia TriStar Home Video and Jim Henson Home Entertainment gave the film one final VHS release and also released it on DVD for the first time and it has had multiple re-releases since including a Collector's Edition on November 25, 2003, and a 25th Anniversary Edition on August 14, 2007. It was also released on UMD Universal Media Disc for PlayStation Portable (PSP) on July 26, 2005. It was released on Blu-ray on September 29, 2009.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Another anniversary edition of "The Dark Crystal" was announced in December 2017, with a brand-new restoration from the original camera negative, and was released on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray on March 6, 2018. Prior to the 4K/Blu-Ray release, Fathom Events presented the restored print of "The Dark Crystal" in US cinemas on February 25 and 28, and March 3 and 6, 2018.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: A tie-in novelization of the film was written by A. C. H. Smith. Henson took a keen interest in the novelization, as he considered it a legitimate part of the film's world rather than just an advertisement. He originally asked Alan Garner to write it, but Garner declined on account of prior engagements. Henson and Smith met several times over meals to discuss the progress of the manuscript. According to Smith, their only major disagreement had arisen over his dislike of the Podlings, which he considered "boring". He included a scene in which a Garthim carrying a sackful of Podlings fell down a cliff and crushed them. Henson considered this scene to be an element of "gratuitous cruelty" that did not fit well into the scope of the story. In order to assist Smith in his visualizing the world of "The Dark Crystal", Henson invited him to visit Elstree Studios during filming. In June 2014, Archaia Entertainment reprinted the novelization, with included extras such as some of Brian Froud's illustrations and Jim Henson's notes.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: During the development phase of "The Dark Crystal", director Jim Henson and writer David Odell discussed ideas for a possible sequel. Almost 25 years later, Odell and his wife Annette Duffy pieced together what Odell could recall from these discussions to draft a script for "The Power of the Dark Crystal". Genndy Tartakovsky was initially hired in January 2006 to direct and produce the film through The Orphanage animation studios in California.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: However, faced with considerable delays, the Jim Henson Company announced a number of significant changes in a May 2010 press release: It was going to partner with Australia-based Omnilab Media to produce the sequel, screenwriter Craig Pearce had reworked Odell and Duffy's script, and directing team Michael and Peter Spierig were replacing Tartakovsky. In addition, the film would be released in stereoscopic 3D.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: During a panel held at the Museum of the Moving Image on September 18, 2011, to commemorate the legacy of Jim Henson, his daughter Cheryl revealed that the project was yet again on hiatus. By February 2012 Omnilab Media and the Spierig brothers had parted ways with the Henson Company due to budgetary concerns; production on the film has been suspended indefinitely. In May 2014, Lisa Henson confirmed that the film was still in development, but it is not yet in pre-production.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: Ultimately, plans for a feature film were scrapped, and the unproduced screenplay was adapted into a 12-issue comic book series "The Power of the Dark Crystal" from Archaia Comics and BOOM! Studios, released in 2017.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: On July 1, 2013, an announcement was made by The Jim Henson Company, in association with Grosset and Dunlap (a publishing division of Penguin Group USA) that they would be hosting a Dark Crystal Author Quest contest to write a new "Dark Crystal" novel, as a prequel to the original film. It would be set in the Dark Crystal world during a Gelfling Gathering. The winning author was J.M. (Joseph) Lee of Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose story, "The Ring of Dreams," was selected from almost 500 contest submissions.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: The novel series consists of four books: "Shadows of the Dark Crystal", released on June 28, 2016; "Song of the Dark Crystal", released July 18, 2017; "Tides of the Dark Crystal", released December 24, 2018; and "Flames of the Dark Crystal", released on August 27, 2019. Together, the novels serve to establish the setting of the Netflix series "", focusing on adventures of some of the series' side characters.


title: The Dark Crystal

text: In May 2017, it was announced that The Jim Henson Company in association with Netflix would produce a prequel series titled "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance". Shooting began in the fall of 2017 with Louis Leterrier as director. The prequel was written by Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach. The series premiered on August 30, 2019 and explores in ten episodes the world created for the original film.


title: Gaelic football

text: Gaelic football (; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kicking or punching the ball into the other team's goals (3 points) or between two upright posts above the goals and over a crossbar above the ground (1 point).


title: Gaelic football

text: Players advance the football up the field with a combination of carrying, bouncing, kicking, hand-passing, and soloing (dropping the ball and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands). In the game, two types of scores are possible: points and goals. A point is awarded for kicking or hand-passing the ball over the crossbar , signalled by the umpire raising a white flag. A goal is awarded for kicking the ball under the crossbar into the net (the ball cannot be hand-passed into the goal), signalled by the umpire raising a green flag. Positions in Gaelic football are similar to those in other football codes, and comprise one goalkeeper, six backs, two midfielders, and six forwards, with a variable number of substitutes.


title: Gaelic football

text: Gaelic football is one of four sports (collectively referred to as the "Gaelic games") controlled by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the largest sporting organisation in Ireland. Along with hurling and camogie, Gaelic football is one of the few remaining strictly amateur sports in the world, with players, coaches, and managers prohibited from receiving any form of payment. Gaelic football is mainly played on the island of Ireland, although units of the Association exist in Great Britain, mainland Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.


title: Gaelic football

text: The final of the All-Ireland Senior Championship, held every year at Croke Park, Dublin, draws crowds of more than 80,000 people. Outside Ireland, football is mainly played among members of the Irish diaspora. Gaelic Park in New York City is the largest purpose-built Gaelic sports venue outside Ireland. Three major football competitions operate throughout the year: the National Football League and the All-Ireland Senior Championship operate on an inter-county basis, while the All-Ireland Club Championship is contested by individual clubs. The All-Ireland Senior Championship is considered the most prestigious event in Gaelic football.


title: Gaelic football

text: Under the auspices of the GAA, Gaelic football is a male-only sport; however, the related sport of ladies' Gaelic football is governed by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Similarities between Gaelic football and Australian rules football have allowed the development of international rules football, a hybrid sport, and a series of Test matches has been held regularly since 1998.


title: Gaelic football

text: While Gaelic football as it is known today dates back to the late 19th century, various kinds of football were played in Ireland before this time.


title: Gaelic football

text: The first legal reference to football in Ireland was in 1308, when John McCrocan, a spectator at a football game at "Novum Castrum de Leuan" (the New Castle of the Lyons or Newcastle) was charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard. A field near Newcastle, South Dublin is still known as the football field. The Statute of Galway of 1527 allowed the playing of "foot balle" and archery but banned "hokie'—the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves" as well as other sports.


title: Gaelic football

text: By the 17th century, the situation had changed considerably. The games had grown in popularity and were widely played. This was due to the patronage of the gentry. Now instead of opposing the games it was the gentry and the ruling class who were serving as patrons of the games. Games were organised between landlords with each team comprising 20 or more tenants. Wagers were commonplace with purses of up to 100 guineas (Prior, 1997).


title: Gaelic football

text: The earliest record of a recognised precursor to the modern game dates from a match in County Meath in 1670, in which catching and kicking the ball were permitted.


title: Gaelic football

text: However even "foot-ball" was banned by the severe Sunday Observance Act of 1695, which imposed a fine of one shilling (a substantial amount at the time) for those caught playing sports. It proved difficult, if not impossible, for the authorities to enforce the Act and the earliest recorded inter-county match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712, about which the poet James Dall McCuairt wrote a poem of 88 verses beginning "Ba haigeanta".


title: Gaelic football

text: A six-a-side version was played in Dublin in the early 18th century, and 100 years later there were accounts of games played between County sides (Prior, 1997).


title: Gaelic football

text: By the early 19th century, various football games, referred to collectively as "caid", were popular in Kerry, especially the Dingle Peninsula. Father W. Ferris described two forms of "caid": the "field game" in which the object was to put the ball through arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees, and; the epic "cross-country game", which lasted the whole of a Sunday (after mass) and was won by taking the ball across a parish boundary. "Wrestling", "holding" opposing players, and carrying the ball were all allowed.


title: Gaelic football

text: Some accounts of traditional Irish football come not from Ireland, but other colonies around the world, often to celebrate St Patrick's Day. Many of the earliest football matches in Australia date back to the 1840s were Irish immigrants. In the Colony of South Australia there are several accounts of Irish football being played at Thebarton in 1843 and again in 1853. There were similar accounts of football in the 1840s in colonial Melbourne at Batman's Hill and the goldfields in the Colony of Victoria. Irish football was also played in the Colony of New Zealand in the 1860s and 1870s in Auckland during Thomas Croke's term as Archbishop there.


title: Gaelic football

text: During the 1860s and 1870s, rugby football started to become popular in Ireland. Trinity College Dublin was an early stronghold of rugby, and the rules of the (English) Football Association were codified in 1863 and distributed widely. By this time, according to Gaelic football historian Jack Mahon, even in the Irish countryside, "caid" had begun to give way to a "rough-and-tumble game", which even allowed tripping.


title: Gaelic football

text: The first account of what the founders of modern Gaelic football referred to as Irish football date to 1873. Paddy Begley notes that in County Kerry in 1870 only soccer and rugby were played, although historian Paddy Foley notes that by 1874 a third, very different form of football began to emerge and spread across South-West Ireland. At Killarney, these highly popular matches were virtually indistinguishable from the Victorian Rules (first codified in 1859 and then played extensively in the Colony of Victoria and Colony of Queensland and to a lesser extent in the colonies of New South Wales and New Zealand). This kicking variety of football was even played with an oval ball which became customary in Australia in the 1870s and that scoring was achieved only by kicking goals. A major difference between the two styles is that Irish variety featured high kicking "up and under" whereas in colonial Victoria, the little marks or foot passes were much more common. While the founders of the game were all familiar with or played rugby, including Cusack and Davin, few had actually played Irish football as it was so rare outside of the South-West, though the influence of this football on the founders was obvious, this is most likely the "football kicking under the Irish rules" that Thomas Croke later recalled in County Cork.


title: Gaelic football

text: Irish historian Garnham, citing R.M. Peter's Irish Football Annual of 1880, argued that Gaelic Football did not actually exist prior to the 1880s and curious on the origin of the distinctive features was of the belief that clubs from England in 1868 most likely introduced elements of their codes including the "mark" (a free kick to players who cleanly catch the ball, which was a feature of the matches played in the 1880s) and scoring by kicking between the upright posts. Unable to identify the source of these peculiar traits he believed they were introduced from English clubs Trinity (1854) and Blackheath (1862) who had their own distinctive rules.


title: Gaelic football

text: County Limerick was a stronghold of the game in the 1880s, and the Commercials Club in Limerick, founded by employees of Cannock's Drapery Store, was one of the first to impose a set of rules, which was adapted by other clubs in the city. These rules are believed to be the basis for the rules that were later adopted by the GAA and appear to have contained some of the Victorian Rules of 1866. It is not known how or when these Victorian Rules reached Ireland, though many of the goldrush Irish immigrants returned to Ireland during the 1870s and 1880s as the colonial fortunes faded. Playing the code under its own rules the club (representing County Limerick) later won the inaugural 1887 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.


title: Gaelic football

text: English (Association) football started to take hold, especially in Ulster, in the 1880s. By the mid-1880s it had become so popular that it was feared by many to completely displace Irish football.


title: Gaelic football

text: Irish football however, continued its grip on the southern counties. Accounts from 1889 state that the variety of football that was becoming popular in Ireland in 1884 bore little resemblance at all to the old mob football and was received by the public as more a hybrid of English and Scotch football.


title: Gaelic football

text: Irish forms of football were not formally arranged into an organised playing code by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) until 1884 with the rules widely distributed in 1887. The GAA sought to promote traditional Irish sports, such as hurling and to reject "foreign" (particularly English) imports. The first Gaelic football rules, showing the influence of hurling (and incorporating some of the Victorian Rules of 1866 and 1877) represented the strong desire to differentiate from association football (and rugby)—for example in their lack of an offside rule. The rules were first drawn up by Maurice Davin in 1884 and later published in the "United Ireland" magazine on 7 February 1887. The original rules bear many similarities to modern football with the requirement to kick, handpass and the basic scoring system, however the original rules also included many Australian features including additional scoring posts (removed later in 1910). The code had already begun to diverge, with the mark being deprecated, the soccer ball being adopted, and carrying the ball not allowed, as such there was no requirement to bounce or solo the ball which was introduced later. The game was intended to promote peace and harmony, rejecting the violence of other football codes, and Davin even included a requirement for players to hold hands with their opponents though this practice fell out of favour.


title: Gaelic football

text: The first game of Gaelic Football under GAA rules (developed by Maurice Davin) was played near Callan, Co Kilkenny in February 1885. From 1886 the GAA banned tackling.


title: Gaelic football

text: 1. The ground for full teams (21 aside) shall be 140 yards long by 84 yards broad, or as near that size as can be got. The ground must be properly marked by boundary lines. Boundary lines to be at least five yards from the fences. Note— There is no objection to a larger ground.


title: Gaelic football

text: 3. There shall be two umpires and a referee. Where the umpires disagree the referee's decision shall be final. There shall also be a goal umpire at each end of the ground to watch for goals and points. The referee shall keep the time, and throw up the ball at the commencement of each goal.


title: Gaelic football

text: 4. The goal posts shall stand at each end in centre of goal line. They shall be 21 feet apart, with a cross bar 8 feet from the ground. Besides the goal posts, there shall be two upright posts standing in each goal line 21 feet from the goal posts. A goal is won when the ball is driven between the goal posts and under the cross-bar. A point is counted when the ball is driven over the cross-bar, or over the goal line, within 21 feet of either goal post.


title: Gaelic football

text: 5. The captains of the teams shall toss for choice of sides before commencing play, and the players shall stand in two ranks opposite each other in the centre of the field until the ball is thrown up, each holding the hand of one of the other side.


title: Gaelic football

text: 6. Pushing or tripping behind, holding from behind, catching below knees, or butting with the head, shall be deemed foul, and the player so offending shall be ordered to stand aside for such time as the referee may think fit, and his side cannot substitute another man. Wrestling shall not be allowed.


title: Gaelic football

text: 8. When a player drives the ball over the side line, it shall be thrown back from the point where it first crossed the line by a player on the opposite side. It may be thrown in any direction. When the ball is driven over the goal line, and not through the goal, the goal-keeper shall have a free kick from goal, no player on the opposite side to approach nearer than the 21 yards line until the ball is kicked. If the ball is driven over the goal line by a player whose goal line it is, it shall count one point for the opposite side; if driven over the goal line within 21 feet of either goal post, it shall count three points; if through the goal it shall count a goal.


title: Gaelic football

text: 9. The match shall be decided by the greater number of goals. When no goal is made, or when the goals are even, it shall be decided by the greater number of points.


title: Gaelic football

text: 10. The ball must be struck with the hand. It may be caught when off the ground, and the player so catching it may kick it any way he please, but must not carry it or throw it forward. Note. — There is nothing in this rule to prevent a player throwing the ball a little in front to allow himself more freedom in kicking it.


title: Gaelic football

text: 11. Where the rules are broken the referee may allow a free kick if he thinks fit. In such free kick the ball must be kicked from the ground. No player on the opposite side to approach nearer that 14 yards until the ball is kicked ; but if the free kick is allowed nearer than 14 yards of the goal line, the opposite players need not stand behind that line.


title: Gaelic football

text: 12. If the ball strikes a bystander near the side line, except the referee or umpire, it shall be considered out of play, and must be thrown in as directed in Rule 8. If it occurs near the goal line it shall be considered out of play and must be kicked from the goal. In the latter case, the referee may allow one point or more if he thinks fit.


title: Gaelic football

text: 13. The referee shall have, during the match, full power to disqualify any player, or order him to stand aside and discontinue play, for any act he may consider unfair, as set out in Rule 6, or for vicious play.


title: Gaelic football

text: No nails or iron tips allowed on the boots. Strips of leather fastened on the soles will prevent slipping. The dress for hurling and football to be knee breeches and stockings and shoes or boots.


title: Gaelic football

text: Gaelic football spread throughout the world in the late 19th century. It was introduced to North America in the 1890s including Canada and the United States in 1892. The first clubs appeared in England in 1896. The first match played in Australia was in 1902.


title: Gaelic football

text: Some Gaelic Athletic Associations began to impose strict nationalistic policies during this time. For example, in Connacht free kicks began to be introduced into some leagues penalising speaking of any language but Irish, and imposed a rule that the referee may speak only in Irish.


title: Gaelic football

text: On Bloody Sunday in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, a football match at Croke Park was attacked by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), including its Auxiliary Division. 14 people were killed and 65 were injured. Among the dead was Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan, for whom the Hogan Stand at Croke Park (completed in 1924) was named.


title: Gaelic football

text: In 1939 at Yankee Stadium New York City Kerry played Galway in front of a crowd of 70,000 spectators.


title: Gaelic football

text: By 1958, Wembley Stadium hosted annual exhibition games of Gaelic football in England, before tens of thousands of spectators.


title: Gaelic football

text: In 1967, Australian journalist, broadcaster and VFL umpire Harry Beitzel, inspired by watching the 1966 All-Ireland senior football final on television, sent an Australian team known as the "Galahs" including South Melbourne's Bob Skilton, Richmond's Royce Hart, Carlton's Alex Jesaulenko and Melbourne and Carlton legend Ron Barassi as captain-coach – to play against Mayo and All-Ireland champions Meath, which was the first recorded major interaction between the two codes.


title: Gaelic football

text: What then followed is the current International Rules Series between players of both codes and utilizing rules from both codes, which also gives them a chance to represent their country. The GAA chooses the team to represent Ireland, while the AFL chooses the team to represent Australia and has added a stipulation that each member of their team must have been named an All-Australian at least once. The two countries take turns hosting the series, and both countries' and sports' respective most prestigious venues – Croke Park and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) – have hosted series Tests. What is known as the Irish experiment also occurred, with Australian rules football clubs recruiting Gaelic football players. Irishmen who have distinguished themselves in both codes include Dublin's Jim Stynes – a 1984 minor All-Ireland football champion who became the 1991 Brownlow Medallist, a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia and a member of Melbourne's Team of the Century – and Kerry's Tadhg Kennelly, the first man to become both a senior All-Ireland football champion (2009) and an AFL Premiership player (2005 with Sydney, the Swans' first flag in 72 years).


title: Gaelic football

text: Players advance the football up the field with a combination of carrying, bouncing, kicking, hand-passing, and soloing (dropping the ball and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands). In the game, two types of scores are possible: points and goals. A point is awarded for kicking or hand-passing the ball over the crossbar, signalled by the umpire raising a white flag. A goal is awarded for kicking the ball under the crossbar into the net, signalled by the umpire raising a green flag. Positions in Gaelic football are similar to that in other football codes, and comprise one goalkeeper, six backs, two midfielders, and six forwards, with a variable number of substitutes.


title: Gaelic football

text: A Gaelic pitch is similar in some respects to a rugby pitch but larger. The grass pitch is rectangular, stretching long and wide. There are H-shaped goalposts at each end, formed by two posts, which are usually high, set apart, and connected above the ground by a crossbar. A net extending behind the goal is attached to the crossbar and lower goal posts. The same pitch is used for hurling; the GAA, which organises both sports, decided this to facilitate dual usage. Lines are marked at distances of , , and ( in hurling) from each end-line. Shorter pitches and smaller goals are used by youth teams.


title: Gaelic football

text: The majority of adult football and all minor and under-21 matches last for 60 minutes, divided into two halves of 30 minutes, with the exception of senior inter-county games, which last for 70 minutes (two halves of 35 minutes). Draws are decided by replays or by playing 20 minutes of extra time (two halves of 10 minutes). Juniors have a half of 20 minutes or 25 minutes in some cases. Half-time intermission lasts from 5 to 15 minutes. Championship matches have a 30-minute intermission.


title: Gaelic football

text: Teams consist of fifteen players (a goalkeeper, two corner backs, a full back, two wing backs, a centre back, two mid fielders, two wing forwards, a centre forward, two corner forwards and a full forward) plus up to fifteen substitutes, of which six may be used. As for younger teams or teams that do not have enough players for fifteen-a-side, it is not uncommon to play thirteen-a-side (the same positions except without the full back and the full forward). Each player is numbered 1–15, starting with the goalkeeper, who must wear a jersey colour different from that of his or her teammates. Up to 15 substitutes may be named on the team sheet, number 16 usually being the reserve goalkeeper.


title: Gaelic football

text: The game is played with a round leather football made of 18 stitched leather panels, with a circumference of , weighing between when dry. It may be kicked or "hand passed". A hand pass is not a punch but rather a strike of the ball with the side of the closed fist, using the knuckle of the thumb.


title: Gaelic football

text: In 2017, the GAA introduced the 'mark' across the board in Gaelic football. Similar to the mark in Australian rules football, a player who catches the ball from a kick-out is awarded a free kick. The rule in full states: "When a player catches the ball cleanly from a Kick-Out without it touching the ground, on or past the line nearest the Kick Out point, he shall be awarded 'a Mark' by the Referee. The player awarded a 'Mark' shall have the options of (a) Taking a free kick or (b) Playing on immediately." In comparison, the Australian rules equivalent requires the ball not to have touched the ground and for the kick to have travelled at least .


title: Gaelic football

text: In the experimental rules of 2019 a player can now also call a mark inside the opposition's line after a clean catch from a kick played over from outside the line that does not touch the ground or any other player.


title: Gaelic football

text: In 2020, additional versions of the Mark came into force in gaelic football. The Advanced Mark allowed a ball to be fielded cleanly inside the opposition 45, when kicked forward over a distance greater than from outside the opposition 45. The referee is required to blow the whistle as this occurs, at which point the player has the option to take the Mark, or play-on.


title: Gaelic football

text: There are three main types of fouls in Gaelic Football, which can result in the ball being given to the other team, a player being cautioned, a player being removed from the field, or even the game being terminated.


title: Gaelic football

text: Aggressive fouls are physical or verbal fouls committed by a player against an opponent or the referee. The player can be cautioned (shown a yellow card), ordered off the pitch without a substitute (red card), or (as of January 2020) ejected from the match to the Sin Bin, where they must remain for ten minutes before returning to the field (black card). Picking up two black cards risks a red card, and the substitute will serve out whatever time imposed by officials.


title: Gaelic football

text: A dissent foul is a foul where a player fails to comply with the officials' judgment and/or instructions. The player can be cautioned (shown a yellow card), ordered off the pitch without a substitute (red card), the free kick placement moved further down-field, or in certain circumstances, the game can be terminated. The following are considered dissent fouls:


title: Gaelic football

text: If the ball goes over the crossbar, a "point" is scored and a white flag is raised by an umpire. A point is scored by either kicking the ball over the crossbar, or fisting it over, in which case the hand must be closed while striking the ball. If the ball goes below the crossbar, a "goal", worth three points, is scored, and a green flag is raised by an umpire. A goal is scored by kicking the ball into the net, not by fist passing the ball into it. However, a player can strike the ball into the net with a closed fist if the ball was played to him by another player or came in contact with the post/crossbar/ground prior to connection. The goal is guarded by a goalkeeper. Scores are recorded in the format Goal Total-Point Total. To determine the score-line goals must be converted to points and added to the other points. For example, in a match with a final score of Team A 0–21 Team B 4–8, Team A is the winner with 21 points, as Team B scored only 20 points (4 times 3, plus 8).


title: Gaelic football

text: Shoulder-to-shoulder contact and slapping the ball out of an opponent's hand are permitted, but the following are all fouls:


title: Gaelic football

text: The referee is responsible for starting and stopping play, recording the score, awarding frees and booking and sending off players.


title: Gaelic football

text: The fourth official is responsible for overseeing substitutions, and also indicating the amount of stoppage time (signalled to him by the referee) and the players substituted using an electronic board.


title: Gaelic football

text: The umpires are responsible for judging the scoring. They indicate to the referee whether a shot was: wide (spread both arms), a kick (raise one arm), a point (wave white flag), square ball (cross arms) or a goal (wave green flag). A disallowed score is indicated by crossing the green and white flags.


title: Gaelic football

text: Other officials are not obliged to indicate any misdemeanours to the referee; they are only permitted to inform the referee of violent conduct they have witnessed that has occurred without the referee's knowledge. A linesman/umpire is not permitted to inform the referee of technical fouls such as a "double bounce" or an illegal pick-up of the ball. Such decisions can only be made at the discretion of the referee.


title: Gaelic football

text: The Team of the Century was nominated in 1984 by "Sunday Independent" readers and selected by a panel of experts including journalists and former players. It was not chosen as part of the Gaelic Athletic Association's centenary year celebrations. The goal was to single out the best ever 15 players who had played the game in their respective positions. Naturally many of the selections were hotly debated by fans around the country.


title: Gaelic football

text: The Team of the Millennium was a team chosen in 1999 by a panel of GAA past presidents and journalists. The goal was to single out the best ever 15 players who had played the game in their respective positions, since the foundation of the GAA in 1884 up to the Millennium year, 2000. Naturally many of the selections were hotly debated by fans around the country.


title: Gaelic football

text: Gaelic sports at all levels are amateur, in the sense that the athletes, even those playing at elite level, do not receive payment for their performance.


title: Gaelic football

text: The main competitions at all levels of Gaelic football are the League and the Championship. Of these it is the Championship (a knock-out tournament) that tends to attain the most prestige.


title: Gaelic football

text: The basic unit of each game is organised at the club level, which is usually arranged on a parochial basis. Local clubs compete against other clubs in their county with the intention of winning the County Club Championship at senior, junior or intermediate levels (for adults) or under-21, minor or under-age levels (for children). A club may field more than one team, for example a club may field a team at senior level and a "seconds" team at junior or intermediate level. This format is laid out in the table below:


title: Gaelic football

text: Though the island of Ireland was partitioned between two states by the British parliament in 1920, the organisation of Gaelic games (like that of most cultural organisations and religions) continues on an All-Ireland basis. At the national level, Ireland's Gaelic games are organised in 32 GAA counties, most of which are identical in name and extent to the 32 administrative counties on which local government throughout the island was based until the late 20th century. The term "county" is also used for some overseas GAA places, such as London and New York. Clubs are also located throughout the world, in other parts of the United States, in Great Britain, in Canada, in Asia, in Australasia and in continental Europe.


title: Gaelic football

text: The level at which county teams compete against each other is referred to as inter-county (i.e. similar to international). A county panel—a team of 15 players, plus a similar number of substitutes—is formed from the best players playing at club level in each county. The most prestigious inter-county competition in Gaelic football is the All-Ireland Championship. The highest level national championship is called the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Nearly all counties contest this tournament on an annual basis, with crowds of people thronging venues the length and breadth of Ireland—the most famous of these stadiums being Croke Park—to support their local county team, a team comprising players selected from the clubs in that county. These modified knock-out games start as provincial championships contested by counties against other counties in their respective province, the four Irish provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht. The four victors in these then progress automatically to the All-Ireland series.


title: Gaelic football

text: In the past, the team winning each provincial championship would play one of the others, at a stage known as the All-Ireland semi-finals, with the winning team from each game playing each other in the famed All-Ireland Final to determine the outright winner. A recent (1990s/2000s) re-organisation created a "back door" method of qualifying, with teams knocked out during the provincial rounds of the All-Ireland Championship now acquiring a second chance at glory. Now the four victorious teams at provincial level enter the recently created All-Ireland quarter-finals instead, where they compete against the four remaining teams from the All-Ireland Qualifiers to progress to the All-Ireland semi-finals and then the All-Ireland Final. This re-organisation means that one team may defeat another team in an early stage of the championship, yet be defeated and knocked out of the tournament by the same team at a later stage. It also means a team may be defeated in an early stage of the championship, yet be crowned All-Ireland champions—as Tyrone were in 2005 and 2008.


title: Gaelic football

text: The secondary competition at inter-county level is the National League. The National Football League is held every spring and groups counties in four divisions according to their relative strength. As at local (county) levels of Gaelic football, the League at national level is less prestigious than the Championship—however, in recent years attendances have grown, as has interest from the public and from players. This is due in part to the 2002 adoption of a February–April timetable, in place of the former November start, as well as the provision of Division 2 final stages. Live matches are aired on the international channel Setanta Sports and the Irish language channel TG4, with highlights shown on RTÉ Two.


title: Gaelic football

text: There are also All-Ireland championships for county teams at Junior, Under-21 and Minor levels, and provincial and national club championships, contested by the teams that win their respective county championships.


title: Pandora

text: In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , "pān", i.e. "all" and , "dōron", i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god cooperated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground "kylix" in the British Museum—is Anesidora (), "she who sends up gifts" ("up" implying "from below" within the earth).


title: Pandora

text: The Pandora myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world, according to which, Pandora opened a jar ("pithos") (commonly referred to as "Pandora's box") releasing all the evils of humanity. It has been argued that Hesiod's interpretation of Pandora's story went on to influence both Jewish and Christian theology and so perpetuated her bad reputation into the Renaissance. Later poets, dramatists, painters and sculptors made her their subject.


title: Pandora

text: Hesiod, both in his "Theogony" (briefly, without naming Pandora outright, line 570) and in "Works and Days", gives the earliest version of the Pandora story.


title: Pandora

text: The Pandora myth first appeared in lines 560–612 of Hesiod's poem in epic meter, the "Theogony" (c. 8th–7th centuries BC), without ever giving the woman a name. After humans received the stolen gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the human race. After Hephaestus does so, Athena dresses her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, garlands and an ornate crown of silver. This woman goes unnamed in the "Theogony", but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in "Works and Days". When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. But she was "sheer guile, not to be withstood by men." Hesiod elaborates (590–93):


title: Pandora

text: For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.</poem>


title: Pandora

text: Hesiod goes on to lament that men who try to avoid the evil of women by avoiding marriage will fare no better (604–7):


title: Pandora

text: [He] reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them.</poem>


title: Pandora

text: Hesiod concedes that occasionally a man finds a good wife, but still (609) "evil contends with good."


title: Pandora

text: The more famous version of the Pandora myth comes from another of Hesiod's poems, "Works and Days". In this version of the myth (lines 60–105), Hesiod expands upon her origin and moreover widens the scope of the misery she inflicts on humanity. As before, she is created by Hephaestus, but now more gods contribute to her completion (63–82): Athena taught her needlework and weaving (63–4); Aphrodite "shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs" (65–6); Hermes gave her "a shameless mind and a deceitful nature" (67–8); Hermes also gave her the power of speech, putting in her "lies and crafty words" (77–80); Athena then clothed her (72); next Persuasion and the Charites adorned her with necklaces and other finery (72–4); the Horae adorned her with a garland crown (75). Finally, Hermes gives this woman a name: "Pandora [i.e. "All-Gift"], because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread" (81–2).


title: Pandora

text: In this retelling of her story, Pandora's deceitful feminine nature becomes the least of humanity's worries. For she brings with her a jar (which, due to textual corruption in the sixteenth century, came to be called a box) containing "countless plagues" (100). Prometheus had (fearing further reprisals) warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus. But Epimetheus did not listen; he accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. As a result, Hesiod tells us, the earth and sea are "full of evils" (101). One item, however, did not escape the jar (96–9):


title: Pandora

text: Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds.</poem>


title: Pandora

text: Hesiod does not say why hope ("elpis") remained in the jar. Hesiod closes with a moral (105): there is "no way to escape the will of Zeus."


title: Pandora

text: Hesiod also outlines how the end of man's Golden Age (an all-male society of immortals who were reverent to the gods, worked hard, and ate from abundant groves of fruit) was brought on by Prometheus. When he stole Fire from Mt. Olympus and gave it to mortal man, Zeus punished the technologically advanced society by creating a woman. Thus, Pandora was created and given the jar (mistranslated as 'box') which releases all evils upon man.


title: Pandora

text: Archaic and Classic Greek literature seem to make little further mention of Pandora, but mythographers later filled in minor details or added postscripts to Hesiod's account. For example, the "Bibliotheca" and Hyginus each make explicit what might be latent in the Hesiodic text: Epimetheus married Pandora. They each add that the couple had a daughter, Pyrrha, who married Deucalion and survived the deluge with him. However, the Hesiodic "Catalogue of Women", , had made a "Pandora" one of the "daughters" of Deucalion, and the mother of Graecus by Zeus. In the 15th-century AD an attempt was made to conjoin pagan and scriptural narrative by the monk Annio da Viterbo, who claimed to have found an account by the ancient Chaldean historian Berossus in which "Pandora" was named as a daughter-in-law of Noah in the alternative Flood narrative.


title: Pandora

text: The mistranslation of "pithos", a large storage jar, as "box" is usually attributed to the sixteenth century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam when he translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Hesiod's "pithos" refers to a large storage jar, often half-buried in the ground, used for wine, oil or grain. It can also refer to a funerary jar. Erasmus, however, translated "pithos" into the Latin word "pyxis", meaning "box". The phrase "Pandora's box" has endured ever since.


title: Pandora

text: Historic interpretations of the Pandora figure are rich enough to have offered Dora and Erwin Panofsky scope for monographic treatment. M. L. West writes that the story of Pandora and her jar is from a pre-Hesiodic myth, and that this explains the confusion and problems with Hesiod's version and its inconclusiveness. He writes that in earlier myths, Pandora was married to Prometheus, and cites the ancient Hesiodic "Catalogue of Women" as preserving this older tradition, and that the jar may have at one point contained only good things for humanity. He also writes that it may have been that Epimetheus and Pandora and their roles were transposed in the pre-Hesiodic myths, a "mythic inversion". He remarks that there is a curious correlation between Pandora being made out of earth in Hesiod's story, to what is in the "Bibliotheca" that Prometheus created man from water and earth. Hesiod's myth of Pandora's jar, then, could be an amalgam of many variant early myths.


title: Pandora

text: The meaning of Pandora's name, according to the myth provided in "Works and Days", is "all-gifted". However, according to others, Pandora more properly means "all-giving". Certain vase paintings dated to the 5th century BC likewise indicate that the pre-Hesiodic myth of the goddess Pandora endured for centuries after the time of Hesiod. An alternative name for Pandora attested on a white-ground kylix (ca. 460 BC) is "Anesidora", which similarly means "she who sends up gifts." This vase painting clearly depicts Hephaestus and Athena putting the finishing touches on the first woman, as in the "Theogony". Written above this figure (a convention in Greek vase painting) is the name "Anesidora". More commonly, however, the epithet "anesidora" is applied to Gaea or Demeter. In view of such evidence, William E. Phipps has pointed out, "Classics scholars suggest that Hesiod reversed the meaning of the name of an earth goddess called Pandora (all-giving) or Anesidora (one-who-sends-up-gifts). Vase paintings and literary texts give evidence of Pandora as a mother earth figure who was worshipped by some Greeks. The main English commentary on "Works and Days" states that Hesiod shows no awareness [of this]."


title: Pandora

text: Jane Ellen Harrison also turned to the repertory of vase-painters to shed light on aspects of myth that were left unaddressed or disguised in literature. On a fifth-century amphora in the Ashmolean Museum (her fig.71) the half-figure of Pandora emerges from the ground, her arms upraised in the epiphany gesture, to greet Epimetheus. A winged "ker" with a fillet hovers overhead: "Pandora rises from the earth; she "is" the Earth, giver of all gifts," Harrison observes. Over time this "all-giving" goddess somehow devolved into an "all-gifted" mortal woman. A.H. Smith, however, noted that in Hesiod's account Athena and the Seasons brought wreaths of grass and spring flowers to Pandora, indicating that Hesiod was conscious of Pandora's original "all-giving" function. For Harrison, therefore, Hesiod's story provides "evidence of a shift from matriarchy to patriarchy in Greek culture. As the life-bringing goddess Pandora is eclipsed, the death-bringing human Pandora arises." Thus, Harrison concludes "in the patriarchal mythology of Hesiod her great figure is strangely changed and diminished. She is no longer Earth-Born, but the creature, the handiwork of Olympian Zeus." (Harrison 1922:284). Robert Graves, quoting Harrison, asserts of the Hesiodic episode that "Pandora is not a genuine myth, but an anti-feminist fable, probably of his own invention." H.J. Rose wrote that the myth of Pandora is decidedly more illiberal than that of epic in that it makes Pandora the origin of all of Man's woes with her being the exemplification of the bad wife.


title: Pandora

text: The Hesiodic myth did not, however, completely obliterate the memory of the all-giving goddess Pandora. A scholium to line 971 of Aristophanes' "The Birds" mentions a cult "to Pandora, the earth, because she bestows all things necessary for life". And in fifth-century Athens, Pandora made a prominent appearance in what, at first, appears an unexpected context, in a marble relief or bronze appliqués as a frieze along the base of the "Athena Parthenos", the culminating experience on the Acropolis. Jeffrey M. Hurwit has interpreted her presence there as an "anti-Athena." Both were motherless, and reinforced via opposite means the civic ideologies of patriarchy and the "highly gendered social and political realities of fifth-century Athens"—Athena by rising above her sex to defend it, and Pandora by embodying the need for it. Meanwhile, Pausanias (i.24.7) merely noted the subject and moved on.


title: Pandora

text: Images of Pandora began to appear on Greek pottery as early as the 5th century BC, although identification of the scene represented is sometimes ambiguous. An independent tradition that does not square with any of the Classical literary sources is in the visual repertory of Attic red-figure vase-painters, which sometimes supplements, sometimes ignores, the written testimony; in these representations the upper part of Pandora is visible rising from the earth, "a chthonic goddess like Gaia herself." Sometimes, but not always, she is labeled "Pandora". In some cases the figure of Pandora emerging from the earth is surrounded by figures carrying hammers in what has been suggested as a scene from a satyr play by Sophocles, "Pandora, or The Hammerers", of which only fragments remain. But there have also been alternative interpretations of such scenes.


title: Pandora

text: In the late Pre-Raphaelite painting by John D. Batten, hammer-wielding workmen appear through a doorway, while in the foreground Hephaestus broods on the as yet unanimated figure of "Pandora". There were also earlier English paintings of the newly created Pandora as surrounded by the heavenly gods presenting gifts, a scene also depicted on ancient Greek pottery. In one case it was part of a decorative scheme painted on the ceiling at Petworth House by Louis Laguerre in about 1720. William Etty’s "Pandora Crowned by the Seasons" of a century later is similarly presented as an apotheosis taking place among the clouds.


title: Pandora

text: In between these two had come James Barry’s huge "Birth of Pandora", on which he laboured for over a decade at the turn of the nineteenth century. Well before that he was working on the design, which was intended to reflect his theoretical writings on the interdependence between history painting and the way it should reflect the ideal state. An early drawing, only preserved now in the print made of it by Luigi Schiavonetti, follows the account of Hesiod and shows Pandora being adorned by the Graces and the Hours while the gods look on. Its ideological purpose, however, was to demonstrate an equal society unified by the harmonious function of those within it. But in the actual painting which followed much later, a subordinated Pandora is surrounded by gift-bearing gods and Minerva stands near her, demonstrating the feminine arts proper to her passive role. The shift is back to the culture of blame whenever she steps outside it.


title: Pandora

text: In the individual representations of Pandora that were to follow, her idealisation is as a dangerous type of beauty, generally naked or semi-naked. She is only differentiated from other paintings or statues of such females by being given the attribute of a jar or, increasingly in the 19th century, a straight-sided box. As well as the many European paintings of her from this period, there are examples in sculptures by Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel (1819), John Gibson (1856), Pierre Loison (1861, see above) and Chauncy Bradley Ives (1871).


title: Pandora

text: There is an additional reason why Pandora should appear nude, in that it was a theological commonplace going back to the early Church Fathers that the Classical myth of Pandora made her a type of Eve. Each is the first woman in the world; and each is a central character in a story of transition from an original state of plenty and ease to one of suffering and death, a transition which is brought about as a punishment for transgression of divine law.


title: Pandora

text: It has been argued that it was as a result of the Hellenisation of Western Asia that the misogyny in Hesiod's account of Pandora began openly to influence both Jewish and then Christian interpretations of scripture. The doctrinal bias against women so initiated then continued into Renaissance times. Bishop Jean Olivier's long Latin poem "Pandora" drew on the Classical account as well as the Biblical to demonstrate that woman is the means of drawing men to sin. Originally appearing in 1541 and republished thereafter, it was soon followed by two separate French translations in 1542 and 1548. At the same period appeared a 5-act tragedy by the Protestant theologian Leonhard Culmann (1498-1568) titled "Ein schön weltlich Spiel von der schönen Pandora" (1544), similarly drawing on Hesiod in order to teach conventional Christian morality.


title: Pandora

text: The equation of the two also occurs in the 1550 allegorical painting by Jean Cousin the Elder, "Eva Prima Pandora" (Eve the first Pandora), in which a naked woman reclines in a grotto. Her right elbow rests on a skull, indicating the bringing of death, and she holds an apple branch in that hand – both attributes of Eve. Her left arm is wreathed by a snake (another reference to the temptation of Eve) and that hand rests on an unstopped jar, Pandora's attribute. Above hangs the sign from which the painting gains its name and beneath it is a closed jar, perhaps the counterpart of the other in Olympus, containing blessings.


title: Pandora

text: In Juan de Horozco's Spanish emblem book, "Emblemas morales" (1589), a motive is given for Pandora's action. Accompanying an illustration of her opening the lid of an urn from which demons and angels emerge is a commentary that condemns “female curiosity and the desire to learn by which the very first woman was deceived”. In the succeeding century that desire to learn was equated with the female demand to share the male prerogative of education. In Nicolas Regnier’s painting “The Allegory of Vanity” (1626), subtitled “Pandora”, it is typified by her curiosity about the contents of the urn that she has just unstopped and is compared to the other attributes of vanity surrounding her (fine clothes, jewellery, a pot of gold coins). Again, Pietro Paolini’s lively Pandora of about 1632 seems more aware of the effect that her pearls and fashionable headgear is making than of the evils escaping from the jar she holds. There is a social message carried by these paintings too, for education, no less than expensive adornment, is only available to those who can afford it.


title: Pandora

text: But an alternative interpretation of Pandora’s curiosity makes it merely an extension of childish innocence. This comes out in portrayals of Pandora as a young girl, as in Walter Crane’s “Little Pandora” spilling buttons while encumbered by the doll she is carrying, in Arthur Rackham’s book illustration and Frederick Stuart Church’s etching of an adolescent girl taken aback by the contents of the ornamental box she has opened. The same innocence informs Odilon Redon’s 1910/12 clothed figure carrying a box and merging into a landscape suffused with light, and even more the 1914 version of a naked Pandora surrounded by flowers, a primaeval Eve in the Garden of Eden. Such innocence, “naked and without alarm” in the words of an earlier French poet, portrays Pandora more as victim of a conflict outside her comprehension than as temptress.


title: Pandora

text: Early dramatic treatments of the story of Pandora are works of musical theatre. "La Estatua de Prometeo" (1670) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca is made an allegory in which devotion to learning is contrasted with the active life. Prometheus moulds a clay statue of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom to whom he is devoted, and gives it life from a stolen sunbeam. This initiates a debate among the gods whether a creation outside their own work is justified; his devotion is in the end rewarded with permission to marry his statue. In this work, Pandora, the statue in question, plays only a passive role in the competition between Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus (signifying the active life), and between the gods and men.


title: Pandora

text: Another point to note about Calderón's musical drama is that the theme of a statue married by her creator is more suggestive of the story of Pygmalion. The latter is also typical of Voltaire’s ultimately unproduced opera "Pandore" (1740). There too the creator of a statue animates it with stolen fire, but then the plot is complicated when Jupiter also falls in love with this new creation but is prevented by Destiny from consummating it. In revenge the god sends Destiny to tempt this new Eve into opening a box full of curses as a punishment for Earth’s revolt against Heaven.


title: Pandora

text: If Pandora appears suspended between the roles of Eve and of Pygmalion’s creation in Voltaire’s work, in Charles-Pierre Colardeau’s erotic poem "Les Hommes de Prométhée" (1774) she is presented equally as a love-object and in addition as an unfallen Eve:


title: Pandora

text: Having been fashioned from clay and given the quality of “naïve grace combined with feeling”, she is set to wander through an enchanted landscape. There she encounters the first man, the prior creation of Prometheus, and warmly responds to his embrace. At the end the couple quit their marriage couch and survey their surroundings “As sovereigns of the world, kings of the universe”.


title: Pandora

text: One other musical work with much the same theme was Aumale de Corsenville's one-act verse melodrama "Pandore", which had an overture and incidental music by Franz Ignaz Beck. There Prometheus, having already stolen fire from heaven, creates a perfect female, “artless in nature, of limpid innocence”, for which he anticipates divine vengeance. However, his patron Minerva descends to announce that the gods have gifted Pandora with other qualities and that she will become the future model and mother of humanity. The work was performed on 2 July 1789, on the very eve of the French Revolution, and was soon forgotten in the course of the events that followed.


title: Pandora

text: Over the course of the 19th century, the story of Pandora was interpreted in radically different ways by four dramatic authors in four countries. In two of these she was presented as the bride of Epimetheus; in the two others she was the wife of Prometheus. The earliest of these works was the lyrical dramatic fragment by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, written between 1807 and 1808. Though it bears the title "Pandora", what exists of the play revolves round Epimetheus’ longing for the return of the wife who has abandoned him and has yet to arrive. A biographer has argued that it is a philosophical transformation of Goethe's passion in old age for a teenaged girl.


title: Pandora

text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s "The Masque of Pandora" dates from 1876. It begins with her creation, her refusal by Prometheus and acceptance by Epimetheus. Then in the latter’s house an “oaken chest, Carven with figures and embossed with gold” attracts her curiosity. After she eventually gives in to temptation and opens it, she collapses in despair and a storm destroys the garden outside. When Epimetheus returns, she begs him to kill her but he accepts joint responsibility. The work was twice used as the basis for operas by Alfred Cellier in 1881 and by Eleanor Everest Freer in 1933. Iconographical elements from the masque also figure in Walter Crane's large watercolour of Pandora of 1885. She is pictured as sprawled over a carved wooden chest on which are embossed golden designs of the three fates who figure as a chorus in Longfellow's scene 3. Outside the palace, a high wind is bending the trees. But on the front of the chest, a medallion showing the serpent wound about the tree of knowledge recalls the old interpretation of Pandora as a type of Eve.


title: Pandora

text: In England the high drama of the incident was travestied in James Robinson Planché’s "Olympic Revels or Prometheus and Pandora" (1831), the first of the Victorian burlesques. It is a costume drama peppered with comic banter and songs during which the gods betroth Pandora to a disappointed Prometheus with “only one little box” for dowry. When she opens it, Jupiter descends to curse her and Prometheus, but Hope emerges from the box and negotiates their pardon.


title: Pandora

text: At the other end of the century, Gabriel Fauré’s ambitious opera Prométhée (1900) had a cast of hundreds, a huge orchestra and an outdoor amphitheatre for stage. It was based in part on the "Prometheus Bound" of Aeschylus but was rewritten so as to give the character of Pandore an equal part with his. This necessitated her falling “as if dead” on hearing the judgement against Prométhée in Act 1; a funeral procession bearing her body at the start of Act 2, after which she revives to mourn the carrying out of Prométhée's sentence; while in Act 3 she disobeys Prométhée by accepting a box, supposedly filled with blessings for mankind, and makes the tragedy complete.


title: Pandora

text: The pattern during the 19th century had only repeated that of the nearly three millennia before it. The ancient myth of Pandora never settled into one accepted version, was never agreed to have a single interpretation. It was used as a vehicle to illustrate the prevailing ideologies or artistic fashions of the time and eventually became so worn a coinage that it grew confused with other, sometimes later, stories. Best known in the end for a single metaphorical attribute, the box with which she was not even endowed until the 16th century, depictions of Pandora have been further confused with other holders of receptacles – with one of the trials of Psyche, with Sophonisba about to drink poison or Artemisia with the ashes of her husband. Nevertheless, her very polyvalence has been in the end the guarantor of her cultural survival.


title: William Bonin

text: William George Bonin (January 8, 1947 – February 23, 1996), also known as the Freeway Killer, was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of twenty-one young men and boys in a series of killings in southern California from May 1979 to June 1980. On at least twelve occasions, Bonin was assisted by one of his four known accomplices; he is also suspected of committing a further fifteen murders.


title: William Bonin

text: Described by the prosecutor at his first trial as "the most arch-evil person who ever existed", Bonin was convicted of fourteen of the murders linked to the "Freeway Killer" in two separate trials in 1982 and 1983. He spent fourteen years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison in 1996. Bonin was the first inmate in California to die by this method.


title: William Bonin

text: Bonin became known as the "Freeway Killer", as well as the Freeway Strangler, due to the fact that the majority of his victims' bodies were discovered alongside numerous freeways in southern California. He shares this epithet with two separate and unrelated serial killers active in and around southern California in the 1970s: Patrick Kearney and Randy Kraft.


title: William Bonin

text: William George "Bill" Bonin was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, on January 8, 1947, the second of three sons – each of whom were three years apart – born to Robert Leonard Bonin Sr. (1919–1980) and Alice Dorothy Bonin (née Cote, 1920–2004). Bonin's parents were both alcoholics; his father was a machinist, an ill-tempered war veteran and gambling addict who was frequently physically abusive toward his wife in the presence of his children, and who is known to have occasionally beaten his sons during his wife's absence. In contrast, his mother was an overbearing, co-dependent and passive woman who suffered from wild mood swings and who spent much of her free time at The French Club, a local bingo parlor as her sons remained unattended at home. Often moody and bedridden, Bonin's mother seldom cooked meals for the family.


title: William Bonin

text: Frequently arguing with his wife – who obtained a job at a local thread mill to supplement for his gambling habit – over finances, Bonin's father lost their home in Andover, Connecticut in a high stakes poker game in January 1950, forcing the family to reside with Bonin's mother in Willimantic and continuing to spend his money each night by gambling and drinking at local bars. Consequently, the siblings were severely neglected as children, with their parents seldom present in the household. In spite of this dysfunctional environment, Bonin and his brothers were actively raised Catholic by their parents and baptized according to church doctrine. They attended St. Mary's Catholic School where staff repeatedly made complaints of Bonin's aggression toward other students, absence from school, not paying attention in class, and an incident in which he rode his bike into a group of young girls. For this offense, Bonin was briefly placed in juvenile hall. After returning home, Bonin was reportedly more recalcitrant toward his parents than before the punishment. Receiving constant complaints from various authorities and locals regarding Bonin and his older brother's delinquency, the parents – frequently neglecting to discipline their children – began to feel stress regarding their two sons.


title: William Bonin

text: On September 6, 1953, Bonin's mother placed Bonin and his older brother in the Franco-American School located at 357 Pawtucket Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, in an apparent effort to protect her children from the ongoing domestic violence within the family home. This Catholic convent was known to severely discipline the children it housed for major and minor breaches of conduct, with punishments administered including harsh beatings, stress positions, repeatedly pacing staircases until exhausted, and partial drowning in sinks filled with ice water. In more extreme cases, orphans faced alleged assaults such as having their heads dunked in toilets and being threatened with knives by older children, as well as being left with hematomas on their head and buttocks from beatings received by nuns. Despite these forms of mistreatment, contemporary records indicate Bonin – a typically troublesome child – was observed by officials to function well under the controlled environment of this convent.


title: William Bonin

text: Bonin recollected being repeatedly subjected to bullying by other children at this orphanage without intervention by authorities before being defended from this peer abuse by a thirteen-year-old orphan in 1955. According to Bonin, this individual escorted him to a restroom, where Bonin agreed to sexual advances from this individual under the condition that the older boy's hands were bound with a towel to make Bonin himself feel safer. Loosing his restraints, the orphan performed fellatio on Bonin before attempting to rape him and forcing Bonin to orally copulate him. Following the assault, Bonin vowed to never let this happen to him again. Later claiming in life that no abuse had taken place by staff, Bonin confessed to being forced to punch a fence by nuns when he misbehaved. As neither parent visited Bonin or his older brother – whom staff forbade from interacting with one another – at the convent, he became worried his parents had died. Bonin was to remain at the convent until May 31, 1955, when he returned to live with his parents in a home owned by Bonin's maternal grandfather located at 465 Stafford Road in Mansfield, Connecticut.


title: William Bonin

text: While living in Mansfield, Bonin attended Annie Vinton Elementary School with his younger brother, with whom he was frequently seen roaming town. At school, Bonin was known to classmates as a juvenile delinquent who was often in trouble or absent, poorly dressed and unkempt, aggressive with peers, had no observable friends, and was often bullied for his strange behavior. Ashamed of his sexual attraction to younger children and male teachers, Bonin isolated himself from others to whom he struggled to relate. Neighbors in Mansfield later failed to recollect either parent spending any significant time with their sons, and one neighbor – observing their unkempt, dirty and hungry condition – occasionally provided meals and clean clothes to Bonin and his younger brother out of sympathy after noting that they made their own food, and witnessing Bonin throw sharp darts at his younger brother who had been positioned against a tree.


title: William Bonin

text: Furthermore, from their early childhood to 1957, Bonin and his brothers were frequently placed in the care of their maternal grandfather, a child molester who sexually abused Bonin's mother until her adulthood, and whom Bonin's mother suspected of molesting his grandsons during the prolonged instances they were under his care. In addition, Bonin's parents occasionally left Bonin and his younger brother Paul under the care of the eldest brother, Robert Jr., who – receiving the majority of their father's abuse for defending their mother – often beat and belittled his siblings. Largely devoid of consequences and parental supervision, Bonin began stealing hubcaps, license plates, and metal tags off of vehicles in town. After receiving repeated complaints by angry neighbors, Bonin's father merely yelled at his son for stealing.


title: William Bonin

text: In 1957, Bonin was arrested for stealing metal tags from vehicle license plates; he was placed in a juvenile detention center for these offenses and various other minor crimes. While incarcerated, he was molested by an adult counselor assigned to control and monitor the juvenile offenders. Following Bonin's release from the detention home, he began sexually fondling his younger brother. After six months, Bonin's younger brother informed their mother of the fondling, prompting his parents to force Bonin to sleep in his own bedroom. Bonin later confessed to fondling and orally copulating younger boys and stripping in the presence of a ten-year-old girl.


title: William Bonin

text: Attending the middle school adjacent to Coventry High School in 1959 and 1960, Bonin had failing grades and isolated himself from others, at one point attempting incest with an older female cousin. In late 1960, Bonin's mother kicked his father out of their home, earning custody of her children with the court declaring his father unfit on grounds of spousal abuse and frequent drunken absences. Due to the gambling addiction of Bonin's father which resulted in the prospect of the foreclosure of the family home however, Bonin's parents reconciled and opted to relocate from Connecticut to California after Bonin's recently fired father was offered a well-paying job in Downey, California as a machinist. In early 1962, the family relocated to 2417 West 187th St. in Torrance, California. Although both parents were generally neglectful of their children, Bonin and his brothers were primarily raised by their mother, who often displayed inordinately domineering and emasculating behavior toward Bonin.


title: William Bonin

text: Bonin attended North High School in Torrance, where he was regarded as a social outcast who scarcely interacted with his peers, although his younger brother later recollected Bonin as an outwardly well-behaved teenager with an apparently caring personality, whom he nicknamed "Goody-Two Shoes" for his temperament. "He'd give the clothes off his back," Paul later remarked of his brother's generosity. "If he had a bag of candy, he gave it away," Bonin's mother also later recalled of her middle son. According to Bonin, he was something of an awkward, shy loner who generally felt uncomfortable in the presence of his peers. Consequently, Bonin is not known to have formed any long-standing or close friendships throughout his adolescence. He was also self-conscious of his facial features, and refused to smile in public due to his misaligned teeth. His primary hobby as a teen was bowling, something at which he performed adequately; this hobby would last throughout the course of his teenage years. Falling asleep in class due to late nights at the bowling alley, Bonin frequently missed school and was suspended on one occasion.


title: William Bonin

text: By his teenage years, Bonin had developed an unrelenting and obsessive interest in pedophilia, keeping his emerging feelings for young boys a secret. His sexuality later became the basis of a long-standing conflict with his mother, who believed his sexual inclinations to be a curable social disorder. As such, the two frequently argued about his homosexual attraction. Very seldom, Bonin attempted to publicly court and/or interact with females as an adolescent. On one occasion, he was humiliated and rejected by a girl whom he had worked up his courage to approach and ask for a date. This incident wounded his self-esteem and increased Bonin's belief that he "just couldn't make it with girls" as romantic partners; he resolved to never allow a female to hurt him this deeply again. Despite this, Bonin – desiring to please his mother and appear normal – soon began dating a young girl at his high school named Linda shortly after turning seventeen, with whom he was never "completely comfortable".


title: William Bonin

text: Following these events, Bonin lured and molested several neighborhood children, pleading guilty to a petty theft charge for which he was fined $56 in late 1965. In early 1966, Bonin dropped out of high school and obtained employment with the help of his father. Bonin's mother – allegedly extremely emotionally controlling and protective of her son – reportedly refused to acknowledge his acts of molestation, as well as the general escalating antisocial behavior exhibited by Bonin throughout his adolescence. Unable to sleep and frequently worried he would be arrested for petty crime or crimes involving children, she prayed for him and warned him often, frustrating Bonin. Nonetheless, Bonin's mother, later expressing extreme disappointment and contempt for her middle son's sexuality and actions, evicted her son from the household on at least one occasion for undisclosed reasons. Lacking motivation and frequently borrowing money from his parents, Bonin joined the military with his mother's encouragement in December 1966.


title: William Bonin

text: Deciding to marry upon his return home, Bonin and Linda became engaged. This engagement had largely been at the behest of his mother, with whom Bonin held a recurrent source of conflict pertaining to his evident homosexuality and who – insisting he lead a heterosexual lifestyle – believed the prospect of marriage would quell her son's sexual preferences. Bonin joined the United States Air Force with his mother's persuasion, who hoped it would cure his inclination toward chaos. He served as a cook for four months in Alaska. Bonin was then arrested for theft on October 25, 1967. As his departure was imminent, however, Bonin's case was dropped. Stationed in Phu Loi Base Camp, he served five months of active duty in the 205th Assault Support Helicopter Unit during the Vietnam War as an aerial gunner, logging over 700 hours of combat and patrol time.


title: William Bonin

text: Bonin was to later claim that his experiences in Vietnam instilled a belief within him that human life is overvalued and that humans generally overestimate their value in society, emphasizing feelings of power and independence while in the service. Despite this, he is known to have risked his own life on one occasion while under enemy fire to save the life of a wounded fellow airman. For this act, Bonin received a medal in recognition of his gallantry, among other medals. According to Bonin, he engaged in allegedly consensual relations with four young girls and had a "number of homosexual encounters" in Vietnam, as well as a 25-year-old female prostitute in Hong Kong, although he also confessed to sexually assaulting two soldiers under his command at gunpoint during the period of the Tet Offensive.


title: William Bonin

text: Bonin served nearly two years in the Air Force before receiving an honorable discharge on October 25, 1968 at age 21. Upon returning home, Bonin discovered that his fiancée – who by this stage had given birth to their son – had left him to marry another man. During Bonin's engagement, he repeatedly informed his fiancée he suffered from recurring nightmares in which he would sexually assault a faceless young woman in a deserted place before discarding her corpse in a shallow grave. According to Bonin's fiancée, he frequently woke up in tears and physically trembling from this nightmare. As a result of these concerning behaviors, the relationship was short-lived. He would later summarize his relationship with this young woman as a "big mistake" and a personal failure of his, primarily fueled by his mother's pressuring of him.


title: William Bonin

text: Working as a gas station attendant, Bonin – feeling betrayed and frustrated – returned to Downey to live with his parents, whom he resented for frequently requesting his help. Several family members noted a marked difference in his behavior following his military service, although Bonin refused to elaborate as to the changes in his demeanor.


title: William Bonin

text: On November 17, 1968, Bonin confronted 14-year-old Billy Jones in Arcadia, California at 9:00 p.m. while driving his mother's white Chevrolet station wagon. Offering to take him home, the youth attempted to flee the vehicle in response to Bonin's repeated questions regarding homosexuality. Bonin growled and squeezed Jones' genitals before disclosing his sexual motive and parking behind a closed shopping center. Retrieving the youth from his vehicle and handcuffing him, Bonin choked him in the parking lot before threatening to murder and sodomize Jones if he did not comply with orders. Bonin raped the minor as he plead for his life, knocking him unconscious during the assault. Jones was then deposited at a park bench by Bonin, who threatened to kill him if he reported the assault. Returning home, his mother promptly reported Bonin to police.