In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora released evils when she lifted the jar’s lid.
Hesiod says that the harmful conditions affecting human life had previously been hidden in the container. When Pandora opens it, the evils fly out and spread among mortals. The account uses the episode to explain why people experience suffering, disease, toil, and other hardships.
The story is part of Hesiod’s wider account of humanity’s decline through the ages. It follows the myth of Prometheus and his theft of fire, which provokes Zeus’s retaliation. Pandora is therefore presented as a consequence of conflict between Zeus and Prometheus, not as an isolated curiosity about a mysterious container.
Modern retellings often list the released contents as disease, pain, war, and greed. Hesiod’s wording is more general: it refers to evils or troubles. Hope remains associated with the jar, but the story’s central release is the spread of evils into the human world.