Pandora’s Box

Opening Pandora’s Box is to cause great trouble and strife and the expression in English dates from the 1500s, although it was also known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It derives from Greek mythology when Zeus, smarting from Prometheus’s theft of fire from him and giving it to man, created Pandora, the first mortal woman, as an act of revenge. Zeus, knowingly, gave Pandora a lidded casket with strict instructions not to open it. Curiosity got the better of Pandora and she opened the box and out flew all the plagues and vices to cause everlasting pain and suffering for humankind. When Pandora shut the lid, only Hope remained inside the casket as a balm for all the woes that had escaped.