In Greek mythology, Pandora is the person who first opens the jar associated with her story.
In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora is sent to Epimetheus after the gods create her. She opens a storage vessel, and the harmful conditions or evils inside escape into the human world. The poem does not present the modern phrase “Pandora’s box”; that wording became established much later through translation and artistic tradition.
The exact motive for opening the vessel is not described in the same detailed psychological terms used by modern adaptations. Later retellings often call curiosity the cause, but that familiar explanation should not be projected too precisely onto every ancient version. Hesiod’s account focuses on the event and its consequences.
Pandora’s action became a lasting metaphor for an apparently small decision that releases many difficult consequences. The story is also distinct from the separate tradition in which Prometheus steals fire, although both events belong to the same mythic sequence about Zeus and humanity.