Hesiod’s original Greek myth describes Pandora’s container as a pithos, a large storage jar, not a box.
The pithos was a substantial ceramic vessel used in the ancient Greek world for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora receives a container whose opening releases the troubles destined to affect human life.
The expression “Pandora’s box” developed through a translation choice. The 16th-century humanist Erasmus translated the Greek vessel using the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That wording became influential in later European languages and popular storytelling.
The original vessel is therefore an important distinction between the ancient source and the modern idiom. Saying “box” is standard in English, but “pithos” is the more precise answer for Hesiod’s text.