Pandora’s name is commonly translated from Greek as “all-gifted” or “all-giving.”
The name is connected with the Greek elements pan, meaning “all,” and doron, meaning “gift.” In Hesiod’s account, the gods contribute gifts or attributes to the woman created as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity. Her name therefore reflects the myth’s emphasis on divine contributions.
The translation is a useful guide rather than a complete explanation of every ancient linguistic detail. Hesiod’s wording presents Pandora as a figure furnished with gifts by the gods, while later interpreters have emphasized either “all-gifted” or “all-giving.” Both renderings are closely related and refer to the same name.
Pandora is not originally described as a box herself. The famous object is a storage vessel, and the phrase “Pandora’s box” became standard through later tradition and translation. In the earliest Greek narrative, the vessel is associated with Pandora but is not literally a box in the modern sense.