In Greek mythology, Pandora was created as the first woman and sent to humanity.
Hesiod gives the earliest surviving literary accounts of Pandora in Works and Days and Theogony. The gods fashioned her after Zeus decided to punish humanity, especially after Prometheus gave humans fire. Different gods contributed qualities or gifts, which explains her name, commonly interpreted as “all-gifted.”
Pandora is often described in modern retellings as a figure who opened a box, but the earliest Greek version says she opened a large storage jar. The “box” wording developed later through translation and became standard in European languages.
Her story is part of a wider Greek explanation for why suffering exists in the human world. It is not the same story as Eve and the forbidden fruit, although both figures are sometimes compared in popular culture.