In Greek mythology, Pandora opened a jar, despite the popular expression calling it Pandora’s box.
The ancient Greek word usually translated as “box” is pithos, a large storage jar used for agricultural goods. Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora opening this container and releasing troubles into the world. The familiar English wording developed later because Renaissance translators and retellings rendered the vessel as a box rather than preserving the original jar imagery.
This detail is one of the best-known differences between the ancient myth and its modern form. Illustrations, children’s books, and popular culture commonly show a small decorated box, but Greek pithoi were generally large ceramic containers. The story’s central idea remains the same: opening a sealed container unleashes consequences that cannot easily be reversed.
The surviving myth does not present Pandora as opening a modern hinged box. It presents her action through the older image of a sealed storage jar, a distinction often discussed in classical studies and translations.