The Greek name for Pandora is Pandora, written Πανδώρα in Greek. The name is usually explained as meaning “all-gifted” or “all-giving,” reflecting the gifts supplied to her by the gods.
Hesiod presents Pandora in two works, Theogony and Works and Days. In the longer account, the gods give her different qualities before Hermes leads her to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. Her name therefore connects directly to the collective role of the Olympian gods in her creation.
A common mix-up is treating Pandora as a goddess. In Hesiod’s story she is a mortal woman, although she is fashioned and equipped by divine beings. She becomes the first woman in the myth’s account of humanity and is linked to the arrival of suffering.
The name’s meaning is also easy to confuse with the later interpretation “gift of all.” Both translations emphasize the same Greek components, pan, meaning “all,” and doron, meaning “gift.”