In Hesiod’s Greek myth, Pandora originally opened a jar rather than a box.
The earliest surviving literary accounts appear in Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, written in ancient Greece. Hesiod used the Greek word pithos, which refers to a large earthenware storage jar. Such vessels were commonly used for storing commodities, so the image was very different from the small wooden box shown in many modern illustrations.
The “box” version developed through later translation and retelling. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus translated pithos with the Latin pyxis, meaning box or container, and that wording strongly influenced the modern expression. The myth therefore involves a translation history as well as a story about curiosity, suffering, and hope.