Pandora's box
source of runaway troubles
Today this word meansSomething that, once meddled with, spills out problems beyond control.
From the story of the vessel that was not to be opened — and, opened, scattered every calamity into the world.
The ending, with hope left at the bottom, still divides interpreters — a consolation, or hope imprisoned too?
Worth noting
In the original it is not a box but a jar (pithos). It became a box in Erasmus's Latin translation.