In Greek mythology, Pandora ("all-gifted") was the first woman. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create her as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of firekylix in the British Museum, is Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts" According to the myth, Pandora opened a container jar (pithos) releasing all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining— leaving only hope inside once she had closed it again.
The myth of Pandora is very old, appears in several distinct versions, and has been interpreted in many ways. In all literary versions, however, the myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world. Hesiod, both in his Theogony (briefly, without naming Pandora outright, line 570) and in Works and Days, ca. 700 BC, gives the earliest literary version of the Pandora story.
In modern times, Pandora's "Box" (see below) has become a metaphor for the unanticipated and irreversible consequences of decisions. The evidence of the Greek vase-painters reveals another, earlier aspect of Pandora.