In Greek mythology, Pandora’s original container was a jar. The Greek word used in Hesiod’s account is pithos, a large storage vessel commonly made from baked clay.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose through a Renaissance-era translation tradition. The Latin humanist Erasmus rendered the Greek vessel as pyxis, meaning a small box or container, and that wording became influential in European languages.
Hesiod’s Works and Days, written in the eighth or seventh century BCE, describes Pandora opening the vessel and releasing troubles into the world. The story therefore originally concerned a jar, not a hinged wooden box. Modern retellings often preserve “box” because it is the established English expression.
A pithos was normally much larger than the little box shown in many illustrations. Such jars were used to store commodities including grain, oil, and wine, making the original image one of a substantial household storage container rather than a decorative gift box.