Hesiod names the first woman Pandora, a name commonly interpreted as meaning “all-gifted” or “all-giving.”
The name reflects the myth’s account of the gods contributing gifts or qualities to her. In Hesiod’s version, Pandora receives clothing, adornment, intelligence, speech, and other attributes from different deities. Hermes gives her a deceptive or deceitful character, while Athena teaches her crafts and clothes her.
Pandora’s name is preserved in two major Hesiodic poems, Works and Days and the Theogony, although the poems emphasize different parts of her story. Works and Days gives the fullest account of the jar and the release of evils.
Readers sometimes assume that “Pandora” literally means “the one who opens the box.” It does not. The word is associated with gifts, and the famous container-opening episode became the source of the later expression “Pandora’s box.”