In Hesiod’s Greek myth, Pandora’s container was a pithos, not a box. The Greek word pithos refers to a large storage jar, commonly used for grain, oil, or other supplies.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose from a Renaissance translation. The humanist Desiderius Erasmus rendered the Greek container as a Latin pyxis, meaning a box, rather than preserving the original image of a jar. That translation shaped the expression used in many modern languages.
Hesiod’s account appears in Works and Days and describes the vessel as containing evils that spread among humanity after it was opened. The jar’s shape matters because it is part of the myth’s original material setting, even though later retellings usually show Pandora opening a small box.
A common mix-up is to treat pithos as Pandora’s personal name or as a magical object with a universally fixed design. Hesiod gives the container a role in the story, but does not describe it like a modern hinged box.