In Greek mythology, Pandora opened a jar, not a box. The earliest surviving accounts, written by Hesiod, describe the container with the Greek word pithos, a large storage jar used for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine.
The “box” wording became standard much later through a translation tradition. The Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated pithos into the Latin pyxis, meaning a small box or container, helping establish the familiar image. English retellings then popularized “Pandora’s box.”
The jar is important because the myth is not simply about curiosity and punishment. It presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire and explains why suffering exists among humans. Hesiod’s version says that troubles escaped from the container, while hope remained inside.
Modern illustrations often show a hinged box because that is the conventional title and image. In the ancient story, however, a jar is the more historically accurate object. “Pandora’s jar” is therefore sometimes used by classicists when discussing the original Greek wording.