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Mythographia

    Pandora

    Pandora was created by the gods on Zeus's orders as a punishment for humanity after Prometheus stole fire. Each god gave her a gift - beauty, cunning, curiosity - and she was sent to earth with a sealed jar. When she opened it, all the evils of the world escaped, leaving only Hope inside.

    Bronze medallion portrait of Pandora cradling the ornate jar she was warned never to open.
    Illustration, not a source

    Pandora, the first mortal woman of Greek myth

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    What does the name "Pandora" mean? →

    Core Myth

    Hesiod tells the story twice, in two different works, with different emphases each time. In the Theogony, Zeus orders Pandora's creation as direct retaliation after Prometheus tricks him at a sacrifice and then steals fire for humanity a second time; Hephaestus shapes her out of earth and water in the likeness of a modest maiden, and Athena dresses and adorns her, but Hesiod frames the entire result as a "beautiful evil" given to men in exchange for the good of fire, a trap built to look like a gift. Works and Days tells the fuller version of what happens next. Every god contributes something to her making: Hephaestus again shapes her body, Athena teaches her needlework and weaving, Aphrodite pours grace and painful longing over her, and Hermes gives her a deceptive nature, cunning, and the power of speech, which is why she is named Pandora, "all-gifted." Zeus gives her a sealed storage jar, a pithos, and sends her to Epimetheus, Prometheus's brother, whose name means "afterthought" and who accepts the gift despite his brother's explicit warning never to take anything from Zeus. Pandora opens the jar, whether from curiosity or because opening it was simply what she was made to eventually do, and releases sickness, hard labor, and countless other evils to spread invisibly among mortals, who had lived free of them before. Only Hope, Elpis, remains trapped inside when she claps the lid back down.

    Why did Zeus create Pandora?

    As punishment. After Prometheus stole fire for humanity a second time, following an earlier trick at a sacrifice, Hesiod's Theogony has Zeus order Pandora's creation as retaliation, calling the result explicitly a "beautiful evil" given to men in exchange for the good of fire, a gift designed to look desirable while causing harm.

    Hesiod, Theogony 570-590

    Which gods contributed to making Pandora, and what did each one give her?

    Hephaestus shaped her body out of earth and water; Athena dressed her and taught her skilled needlework; Aphrodite gave her grace and a longing that causes pain; and Hermes gave her a deceptive character, cunning, and the gift of speech. Her name, meaning "all-gifted," refers directly to this collective divine contribution rather than to any single origin.

    Hesiod, Works and Days 60-82

    Was it really a box that Pandora opened?

    No - the original Greek word is pithos, a large storage jar, not a small box. The mistranslation comes from the sixteenth-century scholar Erasmus, who rendered it into Latin as pyxis, meaning box, likely confusing it with an unrelated story. "Pandora's box" has stuck in English ever since despite not matching the Greek text.

    Hesiod, Works and Days 94-98

    Why did Epimetheus accept Pandora despite his brother's warning?

    Hesiod does not give Epimetheus a clear motive beyond his name itself, which means "afterthought" or "hindsight" - the opposite of Prometheus, "forethought." He is characterized as the brother who understands a mistake only once it has already happened, and accepting Pandora despite Prometheus's explicit warning is presented as exactly that kind of failure.

    Hesiod, Works and Days 83-89

    Why did Hope stay in the jar while all the evils escaped?

    Hesiod states the fact - that Hope alone remained under the jar's lip when Pandora shut it - without explaining whether this is fortunate or cruel. Ancient and modern readers disagree: some read it as a small mercy that spared humanity at least one relief, others as a further punishment, keeping hope permanently out of reach of the suffering already loose in the world. The text itself does not resolve which reading is correct.

    Hesiod, Works and Days 96-99

    Later Traditions

    Erasmus, translating the story into Latin in the sixteenth century, rendered pithos as pyxis, a small box, apparently confusing it with an unrelated story he knew from Latin sources - and "Pandora's box" has been the standard English phrase ever since, even though nothing in the Greek text describes anything box-shaped. Whether Hope remaining in the jar is meant as a small mercy or a further cruelty, keeping hope forever out of reach of the suffering it releases, has been argued over since antiquity and Hesiod's text does not settle it either way. Modern feminist scholarship has widely read Pandora as a Greek counterpart to Eve, the woman blamed for the world's troubles, though the two stories developed independently.

    Also Connected

    5 recorded connections, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Connected

    Where Accounts Differ

    • jar vs box translation
    • was Hope's containment mercy or cruelty
    • The original Greek says pithos (storage jar), not pyxis (box); the mistranslation traces to Erasmus in the sixteenth century and persists in popular culture as "Pandora's box."
    • Whether Hope remaining in the jar is a mercy or a further cruelty is genuinely unresolved in Hesiod's text and has been argued over since antiquity.

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    Mythology

    Appears In

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Hesiod, Works and Days 53-105
    • Hesiod, Theogony 570-590
    • Apollodorus, Library 1.7.2
    Further reading
    • Dora and Erwin Panofsky, Pandora's Box (1956)
    • Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)