In Pandora's box mythology, Pandora released evils into the human world.
Hesiod's Works and Days describes the jar as containing troubles that had previously remained beyond human experience. When Pandora opens it, diseases, toil, and other forms of suffering escape and spread among mortals. The poem presents this event as an explanation for why human life includes hardship even though the gods possess greater ease.
The myth is often retold with a single abstract “evil” emerging, but Hesiod's wording suggests a multitude of afflictions. The evils are not usually listed as named monsters or individual demons. They are more broadly the conditions that make human existence painful and laborious.
Pandora is also not traditionally said to release hope. Hope remains inside the jar after she closes it, although translators and scholars debate the meaning of that detail. The familiar expression “open Pandora's box” now means to begin a process that creates many unforeseen problems.