Pandora Definitions

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (Greek mythology) the first woman; created by Hephaestus on orders from Zeus who presented her to Epimetheus along with a box filled with evils

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Italian, from Late Latin pandura 3-stringed lute, from Greek pandoura Date: 1597 bandore

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pandora Pan*do"ra, n. [L., fr. Gr. Pandw`ra; pa^s, pa^n, all + dw^ron a gift.] 1. (Class. Myth.) A beautiful woman (all-gifted), whom Jupiter caused Vulcan to make out of clay in order to punish the human race, because Prometheus had stolen the fire from heaven. Jupiter gave Pandora a box containing all human ills, which, when the box was opened, escaped and spread over the earth. Hope alone remained in the box. Another version makes the box contain all the blessings of the gods, which were lost to men when Pandora opened it. 2. (Zo["o]l.) A genus of marine bivalves, in which one valve is flat, the other convex.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If someone or something opens Pandora's box or opens a Pandora's box, they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known about before. PHRASE: V inflects