In Greek mythology, what did Pandora release when she opened the jar given to her?

In Greek mythology, Pandora released the world’s evils when she opened the jar given to her.

The story appears most fully in Hesiod’s Works and Days, composed in archaic Greece. Zeus arranged for Pandora to be made and sent to Epimetheus, whose name means “afterthought.” She carried a large storage jar, not a small modern box. When its lid was removed, destructive conditions escaped into the world.

The evils are commonly described in English as illnesses, exhausting labor, grief, and other human troubles. The myth explains why life contains suffering while also preserving a final element inside the vessel. Modern retellings often reduce the episode to simple curiosity, but Hesiod presents it within a larger story about Prometheus, Zeus, labor, and the human condition.

The expression “Pandora’s box” is therefore a later translation-based phrase. The Greek word pithos refers to a substantial storage jar used in antiquity.