In Greek mythology, Pandora released the world’s troubles by opening the jar. The act is the central event of the story commonly called Pandora’s box.
Hesiod describes Pandora as opening the vessel after arriving among humanity. Evils and hardships then spread into the world, while hope remained inside. Modern retellings often explain her action as curiosity, although Hesiod’s original account does not present the later moral phrase “curiosity killed the cat.”
The story belongs to a larger sequence involving Prometheus and Zeus. Prometheus had stolen fire for humans, and Zeus responded by arranging Pandora’s creation as a punishment or counter-gift. Pandora’s opening of the jar therefore forms part of a divine conflict over humanity’s condition.
Prometheus did not open the vessel, and Epimetheus was Pandora’s companion in the myth rather than the person who released its contents. Zeus ordered the plan but was not the one who opened the jar.