In ancient Greek accounts, a pithos held the troubles associated with Pandora. A pithos was a large storage jar, often used for grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s original wording refers to a jar rather than a small box.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose much later through a translation tradition. In the sixteenth century, the humanist Erasmus rendered the Greek container term into Latin as pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That choice helped establish the wording used in many modern languages.
The pithos matters because it changes the image of the scene. The ancient object was a substantial household storage vessel, not necessarily a portable jewelry box. Greek storage jars could be large enough to hold important supplies and were common in domestic and agricultural life.
The myth is therefore often described with a historically inaccurate but deeply established phrase. “Pandora’s box” is now the standard expression, while pithos is the more precise term for Hesiod’s container.