In Hesiod’s myth of Pandora, she opens a jar, although later translations commonly call it a box.
The ancient Greek term is pithos, a large earthenware storage jar used for commodities such as grain, wine, or oil. Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora removes the lid, allowing evils to escape into the world. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed much later through translation and artistic tradition.
The distinction matters because a pithos was not a small modern box. It was a substantial household or agricultural container, and ancient Greek audiences would have recognized it as a practical vessel. Erasmus’s Latin rendering helped popularize the box interpretation in Renaissance Europe.
Modern illustrations therefore often show a decorative box, but the earliest literary evidence points to a jar. The container’s exact physical appearance is less important to the moral of the story than the sudden release of previously contained suffering.