In Greek mythology, Hesiod said Pandora received a jar, later retold as a box.
Hesiod used the ancient Greek word pithos in his account of Pandora. A pithos was a large storage jar, commonly used in the ancient Greek world for grain, oil, or wine. The container in the myth held destructive troubles that spread through humanity after Pandora opened it.
The familiar English expression “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation and retelling rather than Hesiod’s original wording. The Renaissance scholar Erasmus helped popularize the box version in European culture, although the Greek story described a jar. The change became so established that “Pandora’s box” is now the standard phrase in English.
The myth is told most fully in Hesiod’s Works and Days, while a related account appears in his Theogony. The container’s exact contents and the fate of hope vary in later interpretations, but the jar-to-box change is the central textual distinction.