Which modern English phrase comes from the myth of Pandora opening her container?

The modern English phrase is “Pandora’s box.”

The expression describes an action that releases many unforeseen problems or complications. It comes from the Greek myth in which Pandora opens a sealed container and lets troubles spread through the world. In everyday English, opening a Pandora’s box means starting a chain of consequences that may be difficult to control.

The wording is historically later than the myth itself. Hesiod’s Greek account describes a pithos, or large jar. The “box” form became established after Erasmus used a Latin term for a box in a sixteenth-century translation. English inherited the translated image rather than the original pottery vessel.

The phrase is now used beyond mythology—in politics, technology, law, medicine, and journalism. It is normally metaphorical, not a reference to a literal container or to the ancient Greek gods.