Pandora was the first woman created by the gods in the Greek myth associated with the opened jar. Hesiod tells her story in the eighth-century BCE poem Works and Days, where Zeus has her fashioned as part of a punishment directed at humanity after Prometheus stole fire.
Different gods contribute gifts to Pandora, and her name is commonly interpreted as “all-gifted.” She is sent to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, despite Prometheus warning him not to accept gifts from Zeus. Pandora’s opening of a sealed container releases evils into the world, while hope remains inside.
Modern retellings usually call the container a box, but Hesiod’s Greek word is pithos, meaning a large storage jar. Pandora is therefore the woman, not the vessel, and the myth is distinct from later stories about curiosity in other cultures.