In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, she opened a jar before troubles spread through the world.
The earliest surviving literary version appears in Works and Days by Hesiod. The Greek word used there is pithos, referring to a large earthenware storage vessel commonly used for grain, oil, or wine. Pandora’s container therefore belonged to the material world of ancient household storage.
The “box” wording became standard through later retellings and translations. Erasmus used the Latin phrase pyxis, meaning box, in the sixteenth century, helping establish the title now familiar in English and many other languages.
The distinction matters because the original image is not a locked jewelry box. It is a substantial jar, and the myth does not present Pandora as receiving a modern portable box from a named craftsman. The later expression preserves the myth’s meaning while changing its object.