In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora’s vessel contained evils. When the jar was opened, these harmful forces escaped and spread among humanity; hope remained inside.
Hesiod’s account presents the container as part of Zeus’s punishment connected to Prometheus’s theft of fire. The story explains, in mythic terms, why human life includes suffering, disease, labor, and other hardships. It is an etiological tale: a narrative explaining the supposed origin of a condition of human existence.
Modern retellings often say Pandora released “all the evils of the world.” That wording is a useful summary, although ancient translations and interpretations differ in how they describe the contents. The broad and stable fact is that the vessel held evils, not treasure or a single named monster.
The familiar phrase now describes a source of unexpected troubles. Its meaning comes directly from the myth’s pattern: opening one container unleashes many problems that cannot easily be recalled.