In Greek mythology, what is Pandora's container usually called in modern English?

In Greek mythology, Pandora’s container is usually called Pandora’s box in modern English. The phrase comes from later Latin and European retellings, although Hesiod’s earliest surviving account describes a large storage jar rather than a box.

The Greek word commonly translated as “box” is pithos, a large earthenware container used for storing commodities. Erasmus helped popularize the box wording through a sixteenth-century Latin rendering, and the expression became fixed in European languages. That translation history explains why the modern title differs from the vessel in Hesiod.

The phrase now works both as a mythological reference and as an everyday metaphor for an action that releases unforeseen problems. “Pandora’s box” is therefore the canonical modern English expression, while “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the ancient Greek description.