from Greek mythology, in which a box or, in an earlier version, a jar containing all the evils of life, and Hope, was given by the gods to Pandora, the first woman. When it was opened the evils escaped into the world and only Hope remained. There is a later version in which the jar contained blessings rather than evils; but the occasional use of Pandora's box to mean a storehouse of unfamiliar contents is more probably due to the idea of a cornucopia or the influence of various legends about the opening of mysterious boxes