In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora released evils when she opened her container.
Hesiod’s account describes Pandora opening a storage jar that held destructive forces or troubles affecting human life. The story explains, in mythic form, why suffering, disease, toil, and other hardships exist in the world. These evils escaped after the lid was removed, while something else remained inside.
The Greek text does not present the container as a modern hinged box. It uses the word pithos, meaning a large earthenware storage jar. Renaissance translations helped turn the jar into a “box,” and that wording became standard in many languages.
The myth is often simplified into the idea that Pandora released every evil except hope. Hesiod’s wording and the interpretation of what remained have generated scholarly debate, especially about whether hope was intended as a comfort, a withheld resource, or part of the story’s ambiguity. The core event, however, is consistent: opening the container brought evils into the human world.