In the Greek myth of Pandora, Pandora opened the famous container. Hesiod says that Zeus arranged for her to be given to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, and that she removed the lid from the storage jar, releasing the troubles held inside.
The story forms part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus took fire from the gods and gave it to humans. Once the jar was opened, diseases, toil, and other forms of suffering spread among people. Pandora then replaced the lid, leaving Hope inside. The precise mechanics vary in later retellings, but Pandora is consistently the figure associated with opening the container.
The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” is technically based on a translation error. Hesiod’s original Greek word is pithos, meaning a large storage jar, not a small box. The box image became standard through later European adaptations and remains the dominant form in English.