In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Zeus placed evils inside the sealed container before Pandora opened it.
The container held destructive or troubling conditions that would thereafter affect human life. When Pandora opened it, the evils escaped and spread among humanity. Hope remained inside, according to the usual reading of Hesiod’s account, although scholars have debated whether hope was trapped in the container, deliberately withheld, or intended as a separate part of the story’s symbolism.
The ancient text does not describe the container as a modern hinged box. Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos, normally referring to a large storage jar. The “box” version became dominant in later European tradition after a famous Latin translation associated the vessel with pyxis, a smaller box or container.
Thus the central contents are the evils themselves, not fire, treasure, or punishment in a physical form. The myth explains the arrival of suffering through a narrative about divine retribution and human curiosity.