In Greek mythology, Pandora’s original container for the world’s evils was called a pithos.
A pithos was a large storage jar used in ancient Greece, often for grain, oil, or wine. In Hesiod’s account, Pandora opened or removed the lid of this vessel, allowing troubles to spread among humanity. The Greek word is commonly translated as “jar,” not specifically as “box.”
The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” developed later. During the Renaissance, the humanist Erasmus translated the Greek term into Latin as pyxis, meaning a small box or container. That translation helped establish the wording used in many modern languages.
The myth appears most fully in Hesiod’s Works and Days, where the vessel contains diseases and other hardships. The story is therefore often remembered as a tale about unintended consequences, but its original object was a pithos: a large jar rather than a wooden box.