In Greek mythology, Pandora opened a jar, releasing humanity’s troubles. The object is commonly called Pandora’s box in English, but the earliest Greek accounts describe it as a large storage jar, or pithos.
The story appears most fully in Hesiod’s Works and Days, written in archaic Greece. The gods created Pandora and sent her to Epimetheus, who accepted her despite Prometheus’s warning. When Pandora opened the container, evils escaped into the world; hope remained inside, depending on the translation and interpretation.
The word “box” comes from later retellings and translations rather than Hesiod’s original description. Erasmus helped popularize the box version in the sixteenth century. Modern illustrations therefore often show a small chest, even though a pithos was a substantial ceramic vessel used for storing commodities.
The myth is not the same as a biblical creation story, and Pandora is not described as simply inventing evil. Hesiod presents the episode as part of an explanation for why human life contains suffering and labor.