Pandora's box

noun

1. a source of extensive but unforeseen troubles or problems.

   The senate investigation turned out to be a Pandora's box for the administration.

Pandora's box

1. In classical mythology, a box that Zeus gave to Pandora, the first woman, with strict instructions that she not open it. Pandora's curiosity soon got the better of her, and she opened the box. All the evils and miseries of the world flew out to afflict mankind.

To “open a Pandora's box” is to create an uncontrollable situation that will cause great grief.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pandora's box¹

First recorded in 1570–80

Idioms and Phrases

A source of unforeseen trouble, as in Revising the tax code is opening a Pandora's box. This equivalent for the modern can of worms comes from the Greek legend in which Pandora, entrusted with a box containing the world's ills, is overcome by curiosity and opens it, thereby releasing them. [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

Not thankful: All the hand-wringing and apocalyptic soothsaying about how artificial intelligence is a Pandora’s box that will steal our jobs and ultimately spell our doom.

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Recent developments have opened a Pandora’s box.

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It also opened a Pandora's Box of controversial scientific and ethical issues - including human cloning, designer babies and "Frankenstein foods".

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That joke opened Pandora’s box, because the next thing I knew, he asked me if I ever had a three-way.

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The podcast “Crimes of the Times,” featuring “Pandora’s Box: The Fall of L.A.’s Sheriff,” is now available wherever you get your podcasts.

Read more on Los Angeles Times