In the Greek myth of Pandora, the jar’s lid was opened before the evils escaped.
Hesiod describes Pandora removing the cover from a container, after which the harmful forces inside flew out and spread among humanity. The action is central to the myth’s explanation of why suffering, disease, and hardship exist in the human world.
The story does not present Pandora as constructing the container or inventing its contents. She is created by the gods and sent into the household of Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning. Her curiosity or impulse to open the jar becomes the turning point in the narrative.
The popular title “Pandora’s box” came from a sixteenth-century Latin translation that rendered the Greek pithos as pyxis, meaning box. Ancient large storage jars were very different from the compact box shown in many modern illustrations.