In Greek mythology, Pandora opened the vessel herself and released its contents. Hesiod’s account makes Pandora the active figure in the episode, although the surrounding circumstances are arranged by Zeus as part of his punishment of humanity.
Pandora is sent to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning not to receive gifts from Zeus. She brings with her the sealed vessel, which Hesiod describes as containing destructive things. When it is opened, these afflictions escape and spread among human beings.
A common modern retelling says that Pandora opened a “box,” but Hesiod’s Greek word is pithos, a large storage jar. The familiar box is a later translation tradition associated especially with Renaissance scholarship. The person who opens it remains Pandora in both the ancient narrative and the modern expression.
The myth does not describe Pandora as malicious in the modern sense. The ancient story focuses more on divine deception, human suffering, and the arrival of a new condition of mortal life than on a simple moral lesson about curiosity.