Viruses in Zip files

I think this is a dumb question... but is there any risk in opening a zip file, but not opening the contents of the zip...

I received a zip library from a strange source which when opened appeared to be empty... I did't think there was any harm in opening zips so long as you didn't run or open the programs/documents contained therein.. but I thought I'ld double check..

Thx - Ted