Pandora's box

English thumb| Pronunciation en LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Pandora's box.wav Southern England Proper noun en Greek mythology A box given to Pandora by Zeus, whose instructions stated that it must not be opened, and were then ignored, leading to disastrous consequences. Noun en idiomatic A source of unforeseen trouble; especially, one whose effects cannot be reversed. en Pandora's jar 16 I There was an evil in Pandora's boxBeyond all other ones, yet it came forthIn guise so lovely, that men crowded roundAnd sought it as the dearest of all treasure. 396–397 396 The first thing it did was to spawn a whole Pandora's box of DNA viruses—smallpox, influenza and so on. en-GB w:Bruce Schneier The Anthropic ‘Fable’ saga proves: we have opened the AI Pandora’s box. What now? The Guardian 2026-06-16 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/16/anthropic-fable-ai 0261-3077 We have opened the AI Pandora’s box. Now we have to make the best of it. https://web.archive.org/web/20261011050326/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/16/anthropic-fable-ai 11 October 2026 Translations a source of unforeseen trouble Albanian: sq kutia e Pandorës Arabic: ar Armenian: hy Պանդորայի արկղ, hy Պանդորայի տուփ Bashkir: ba Пандора ҡумтаһы Basque: eu Bulgarian: bg кутията на Пандора Catalan: ca capsa de Pandora Chinese: Mandarin: cmn 潘多拉魔盒 Pānduōlā móhé, cmn 災難之源 zāinàn zhī yuán Czech: cs Pandořina skříňka f Danish: da Pandoras æske c Dutch: nl doos van Pandora f Esperanto: eo skatolo de Pandora Faroese: fo eskjan hjá Pandoru f Finnish: fi Pandoran lipas French: fr boîte de Pandore f Georgian: ka პანდორას ყუთი German: de Pandorabüchse f, de Büchse der Pandora f Greek: el κουτί της Πανδώρας n Hebrew: he תיבת פנדורה f Hindi: hi पैन्डोरा का बॉक्स Hungarian: hu Pandóra szelencéje Icelandic: is askja Pandóru Indonesian: id kotak Pandora Italian: it vaso di Pandora m Japanese: ja パンドラの箱 パンドラのはこ, Pandora no hako, ja パンドーラーの箱 パンドーラーのはこ, Pandōrā no hako, ja 玉手箱 たまてばこ, tamatebako treasure box from "Urashima Taro" tale Kazakh: kk Пандора қалбыры Korean: ko 판도라의 상자, ko 판도라의 함, ko 판도라의 항아리 Latvian: lv Pandoras lāde f Lithuanian: lt Macedonian: mk Пандорина кутија Mongolian: mn Norwegian: no pandoraeske Occitan: oc boita de Pandora Polish: pl puszka Pandory f Portuguese: pt caixa de Pandora f Punjabi: pa ਪੰਡੋਰਾ ਦਾ ਡੱਬਾ Romanian: ro cutia Pandorei Russian: ru я́щик Пандо́ры m Spanish: es caja de Pandora f Swedish: sv Pandoras ask c, sv pandorasask c Tamil: ta பண்டோராவின் பெட்டி Thai: th Turkish: tr Pandora'nın kutusu Ukrainian: uk скринька Пандори Uzbek: uz Pandora qutisi Vietnamese: vi chiếc hộp Pandora See also en can of worms genie is out of the bottle kettle of fish open Pandora's box tar baby en eponyms terms derived from Greek mythology