In Hesiod’s myth of Pandora, she opened a jar.
The Greek word used in the ancient story is pithos, a large storage jar commonly used for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s Works and Days does not describe a small hinged box. The familiar “box” entered popular culture through later translation and retelling.
The mistranslation is associated with the Renaissance scholar Erasmus, who rendered the Greek vessel as a Latin pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That wording helped establish the expression “Pandora’s box” in European languages.
The change from jar to box matters because it shows how myths evolve through translation. Ancient Greek listeners would have imagined a substantial household storage vessel, not necessarily a compact gift box. Modern illustrations and phrases retain the box image, but “jar” is the more historically precise answer for Hesiod’s original account.