In Hesiod’s Greek myth of Pandora’s box, the container was originally a jar.
The ancient Greek word used by Hesiod is pithos, a large storage jar commonly used for grain, oil, or wine. It was not specifically a small box. The familiar “box” wording arose later through translation and reinterpretation, especially after the Renaissance.
Hesiod tells the story in two eighth-century BCE works, Works and Days and Theogony. In the myth, Zeus has the jar prepared as part of Pandora’s arrival among humans. When its contents escape, suffering enters the human world, while one final presence remains inside.
The jar detail is an important source of confusion because modern retellings usually preserve the phrase “Pandora’s box.” The expression now means a source of unexpected troubles, even though the original vessel was a large earthenware container rather than a hinged box.