Pandora is the woman who opened the container holding humanity’s troubles in Hesiod’s Greek myth.
Hesiod presents Pandora as the first woman, fashioned by the gods as part of Zeus’s punishment after Prometheus stole fire for humans. Each god contributes something to her creation or appearance, and her name is commonly understood as meaning “all-gifted” or “gifted by all.”
Pandora is sent to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother. Although Prometheus warns Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus, Epimetheus welcomes her. Pandora later opens the sealed container, releasing illnesses, toil, and other hardships into the human world.
The popular English expression says “Pandora’s box,” but Hesiod describes a pithos, a large storage jar. The story is therefore about Pandora and a jar, not a literal box in the original Greek account.