Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Pandora's Box
Tagged: Theme.
The urn or jar which in Greek Myth was unwisely opened by Pandora, the female gift of Zeus to Epimetheus the Titan (brother of Prometheus). This action – sheer curiosity rather than the breaking of an overt Prohibition – released afflictions like disease and old age on newly created mankind; the one consoling element was that the jar also contained hope. [DRL]