In the Greek myth of Pandora, the first woman’s name before it became linked with the famous container was Pandora.
The name Pandora is commonly explained from Greek elements meaning “all-gifted” or “all-giving,” although ancient and modern interpretations differ over its exact nuance. Hesiod presents Pandora as a woman fashioned by the gods and endowed with gifts, including beauty and persuasive abilities.
Her story is part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire for humanity. Zeus sends Pandora to Epimetheus, and the opening of her vessel introduces suffering into human life. The woman and the container became inseparable in later popular retellings, even though Hesiod’s account focuses on the vessel as a jar or storage container rather than using the modern phrase “Pandora’s box.”
Pandora is not the name of a goddess of evil, nor is she simply a mortal historical figure. She is a mythological character whose creation story explains a Greek view of why hardship exists.