In Greek mythology, Pandora’s container was originally called a pithos, a large storage jar. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose from a later translation mistake.
The earliest surviving literary account appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days, written in ancient Greek. Hesiod describes a sealed pithos containing troubles that escape when Pandora opens it. A pithos was a substantial clay vessel used in the ancient Greek world for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine.
The word “box” became standard in European retellings after the Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus translated the Greek term as Latin pyxis, meaning a small box or casket. That choice reshaped the image of the myth, even though the original vessel was much larger and jar-like.
The distinction matters because “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the ancient source, while “Pandora’s box” is the established modern expression. Both names refer to the same mythic container and its release of evils into the world.