Pandora
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) A genus of marine bivalves, in which one valve is flat, the other convex.
(2): ( n.) 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.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
(i.e. the All-endowed), according to Grecian myth, was the first woman on the earth. When Prometheus had stolen fire from heaven, Zeus instigated Hepheestus to make woman out of earth to bring vexation upon man by her graces. The gods endowed her with every gift necessary for this purpose, beauty, boldness, cunning, etc.; and Zeus sent her to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, who forgot his brother's warning against receiving any gift from Zeus. A later form of the myth represents Pandora as possessing a vessel or box filled with winged blessings, which mankind would have continued to enjoy if curiosity had not prompted her to open it, when all the blessings flew out, except Hope.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [3]
E . the All-Gifted) in the Greek mythology a woman of surpassing beauty, fashioned by Hephæstos, and endowed with every gift and all graces by Athena, sent by Zeus to Epimetheus ( q. v .) to avenge the wrong done to the gods by his brother Prometheus, bearing with her a box full of all forms of evil, which Epimetheus, though cautioned by his brother, pried into when she left, to the escape of the contents all over the earth in winged flight, Hope alone remaining behind in the casket.
