Pandora opened the container that released troubles into the world in the Greek myth of Pandora’s box.
The story appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days, composed in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Pandora was fashioned by the gods and sent to humanity after Zeus became angry with Prometheus for giving people fire. She was given gifts by several deities, including beauty, intelligence, and persuasive speech.
Pandora married or joined Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother. Although Prometheus had warned Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus, Epimetheus welcomed Pandora. She eventually opened the container entrusted to her, and illnesses, toil, and other hardships escaped.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is historically imprecise: the earliest Greek account describes a large storage jar, or pithos, not a box. The story is also different from the biblical account of Eve; Pandora belongs to Greek mythology, while Eve belongs to Genesis.