Many scholars see a close analogy between Pandora herself, who was made from clay, and the clay jar which dispenses evils. Pithoi were used for storage of wine, oil, grain or other provisions, or, ritually, as a container for a human body for burying, from which it was believed souls escaped and necessarily returned. The word translated as "box" was actually a large jar (πίθος pithos) in Greek. A modern, more colloquial equivalent is "to open a can of worms". įrom this story has grown the idiom "to open a Pandora's box", meaning to do or start something that will cause many unforeseen problems. Though she hastened to close the container, only one thing was left behind – usually translated as Hope, though it could also have the pessimistic meaning of "deceptive expectation". Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world. According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus, the king of the gods, took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus.
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