In ancient Greek mythology, a jar held the troubles released by Pandora.
Hesiod’s Works and Days describes a large storage jar, called a pithos in Greek, rather than a small box. Pandora opens the vessel, and the harmful forces inside escape into the world. Hope remains associated with the vessel after the other contents have departed, although translations and interpretations differ over whether it stayed inside or was deliberately retained.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation history. The sixteenth-century humanist Erasmus translated the Greek term as a Latin word meaning box or container, helping establish the expression that became standard in many modern languages.
The jar was a practical ancient Greek storage vessel, often large and used for commodities such as grain or oil. Thus, the original image is closer to a household storage jar than to a decorative jewelry box.