In Greek mythology, Pandora opens a pithos, a large storage jar, according to Hesiod’s original wording.
The Greek word pithos referred to a substantial ceramic container used for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s Works and Days says Pandora removed the lid of a jar, allowing the evils inside to escape into the world. The original text does not describe a small jewelry box or a wooden chest.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed much later through translation and retelling. The Latin writer Erasmus used the expression pyxis Pandorae, meaning “Pandora’s box,” in the sixteenth century. That wording helped establish the modern image, even though a pithos was a large earthenware storage vessel.
This distinction matters because the container’s size and function affect the myth’s imagery. A storage jar was an ordinary household object in ancient Greece, while the modern phrase suggests a compact box. Both refer to the same story, but pithos is the historically precise term.