In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, the original container was a pithos, a large Greek storage jar.
A pithos was a substantial vessel used in the ancient Mediterranean for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. It was much larger and more practical than the small box suggested by the modern English phrase. Hesiod’s choice of a jar fits the material culture of ancient Greece.
The “box” version became dominant through a long history of translation and artistic retelling. Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or container, when rendering the Greek story, and later European languages inherited that image. The familiar phrase then spread through literature, painting, and everyday speech.
This is not merely a vocabulary curiosity. The vessel’s original size changes the visual meaning of the myth: Pandora is associated with a household storage jar, not a tiny hinged chest. The title “Pandora’s box” remains conventional, even though “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the ancient wording.