In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora’s jar helps explain human suffering.
The poem places Pandora’s story within a broader explanation of why human life includes toil, disease, hardship, and other troubles. Zeus sends Pandora after Prometheus deceives him and steals fire for mortals. When the jar is opened, troubles spread among humanity, while the vessel’s remaining contents do not escape in the same way.
The myth is an etiological story: it explains the origin or presence of conditions people experience. It is not a scientific account, and Hesiod does not present a modern psychological theory of suffering. The exact contents are described broadly as evils or troubles rather than as a fixed catalog with a universally agreed number.
Later summaries sometimes reduce the story to the phrase “all the world’s evils.” That wording captures the general idea but can obscure the poem’s wider themes, including labor, justice, divine order, and the difficult relationship between gods and humans.