Pandora was the first woman created by the gods in the Greek myth later associated with Pandora’s box.
According to the myth, Zeus ordered her creation after Prometheus gave fire to humanity. Several gods contributed gifts to Pandora, including beauty, skill, persuasion, and curiosity. Her name is commonly explained from Greek elements meaning “all-gifted” or “all-giving.”
The familiar English expression says that Pandora opened a box, but the earliest surviving account describes a large storage jar. The Greek word pithos means a jar or storage vessel, and later artistic and literary traditions transformed it into a box.
Pandora’s story appears in Hesiod’s works, especially Works and Days and Theogony. The myth explains the arrival of troubles among humans while also preserving hope as the final thing remaining in the vessel.