Pandora is the first woman in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of fire and patron of craftsmen, to create her from earth. The other gods gave her special qualities, and her name means “All-Gifts.” Zeus intended Pandora as a punishment that humans would nevertheless welcome after Prometheus stole fire from heaven and gave it to mortals. Pandora had a large jar, called a pithos in Greek, containing all manner of misery and evil, and when she opened it, suffering and disease escaped into the world. Hesiod says humans had lived without these hardships before the jar was opened, though he does not say why Pandora opened it. Hope, called Elpis, was the only thing left inside because Pandora shut the lid, following Zeus’s design.
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