In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora is given a jar, not a box. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation and artistic tradition.
Hesiod describes a large storage vessel called a pithos in ancient Greek. Pandora opens it, releasing troubles into the world, while hope remains inside. A pithos was a substantial container used for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine.
The “box” wording became especially influential after the Renaissance. The humanist Erasmus translated the Greek vessel as a Latin pyxis, a small box or container, helping establish the expression used in English today.
This is one of the most common details people get wrong about the myth. The ancient source does not portray Pandora opening a modern hinged box; it describes a storage jar in a myth explaining the arrival of suffering among humans.