Pandora opens the container in the Greek myth of Pandora's Box, releasing its contents into the world.
Hesiod's Works and Days presents Pandora as the first woman, created by the gods after Zeus seeks to punish humanity for Prometheus's theft of fire. Zeus sends her to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus's earlier warning not to receive gifts from Zeus.
The object is commonly called a box in English, but Hesiod describes it with the Greek word pithos, meaning a large storage jar. The later box wording helped create the familiar English expression. In the story, Pandora opens the container, and harmful forces escape before it is closed again.
The myth is often simplified as an account of curiosity, but Hesiod's version is also a story about divine punishment, deception, and the origins of human suffering. The surviving remnant is traditionally identified as hope.