Did Zeus give Pandora the box?

Question

Did Zeus give Pandora the box? So the version I'm most familiar with is that Epimetheus had a box containing the evils of the world, but in some other versions e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOewVh0umdM
Zeus had the box all along so why not just open the box and unleash those things upon mankind?

Answer 1

Whatever version of the myth you've heard is missing critical parts.

Prometheus (meaning "fore-thought"), a Titan, was given the job of creating humanity. But humans were left in the dark and cold and treated poorly. When Prometheus complained, the gods blew him off, so he dipped a reed into the sun and brought fire to humans.

The gods were furious about this, because now humans could cook their food, have light to travel at night, create settlements, etc. and basically not be slaves utterly dependent on the gods. So they wanted to punish Prometheus.

They punished him in two ways. One was punishing him personally, by chaining him to a rock in the middle of the ocean where a giant eagle tore at his liver every day. His liver regrew overnight, and the eagle would start again in the morning. He was eventually rescued by Hercules.

The other punishment was against his overall house, his family. Prometheus had a brother, Epithemeus ("after-thought"). The gods would give him a wife.

They created Pandora, meaning "all-gifted." Each god/dess gave her some great attribute as a gift: Aphrodite made her beautiful, Hermes made her bold and clever, Athena gave her the knowledge of needlework, and so on. They made her irresistible to dumb, impetuous Epithemeus. And they made sure that she had an insatiable curiosity.

Zeus sent Pandora to Epithemeus as a gift to be his wife. Even though Prometheus had warned him to beware of Greek gods bearing gifts, Epithemeus accepted Pandora. As a wedding gift, the gods also gave Pandora the famous box/jar, but told her "You can never open it."

Obviously she eventually did, because the gods had set up the trap that way. In the jar they had deliberately placed little flying stinging spirits which carried evils: plague, pestilence, hard work, etc. (The evils were not just casually stored there. They were put there on purpose so Pandora would release them.) When she opened the jar, all the evil spirits flew out and zipped off to bring misery to humanity. She slammed the jar shut just in time to keep Hope from flying off, so Hope still remained to alleviate humanity's misery.

So yes, strictly speaking Zeus (and the other gods) gave her the box/jar, but the jar didn't already exist. It was devised as a punishment, and Pandora was the unwitting patsy.

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Direct source: Theoi's article on Pandora, Theoi's article on Prometheus. Also taken from Evslin/Evslin/Hoopes, the D'Aulaires, and various other retellings of the myth I've heard over the years.