In Greek mythology, who was Pandora, the woman who opened the famous container?

Pandora is described in Greek mythology as the first woman. Hesiod introduces her in the poems Theogony and Works and Days, where the gods create her after Prometheus gives humanity fire.

Her creation forms part of Zeus’s punishment of humankind. Different gods give Pandora qualities or gifts, and her name is commonly interpreted as “all-gifted” or “all-giving.” She is then sent to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning not to accept gifts from Zeus.

The familiar story says Pandora opens a container and releases evils into the world, while hope remains inside. The earliest surviving account calls the container a pithos, meaning a large storage jar, rather than a box.

Pandora is sometimes mistakenly treated as a goddess. In Hesiod’s account, however, she is a mortal woman fashioned by the gods and placed at the beginning of human history.