In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora releases evils when she opens the sealed jar. The poem says that countless harmful conditions had been confined inside, and they escape into the world when the container is opened.
Hesiod’s account does not describe a modern cardboard box. The Greek word is pithos, a large earthenware storage jar used in the ancient Mediterranean. The later phrase “Pandora’s box” arose through a translation tradition associated with Erasmus, who rendered the vessel as a box in Latin.
The myth explains why human life includes suffering, disease, and hardship while suggesting that these troubles were once hidden from people. In Hesiod’s version, hope remains behind the vessel’s lid. That detail has generated long-standing debate because readers disagree about whether hope is being preserved for humanity or withheld.