Pandora is the woman associated with opening the container later called Pandora’s box.
In Hesiod’s Greek poems, Pandora is created by the gods and sent to humanity. Her name is commonly explained as meaning “all-gifted,” because different gods give her qualities or gifts. She is connected with the punishment of humanity after Prometheus brings fire to people.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is historically a translation shift. Hesiod describes a large storage jar, called a pithos in Greek, not a hinged box. Later European artistic and literary traditions popularized the box image.
The myth is often summarized as saying that evils escaped when Pandora opened the container, while hope remained inside. Interpretations differ over whether hope was meant as comfort, another withheld item, or part of the myth’s ambiguity.