In Hesiod’s myth, Pandora opened a jar rather than a box.
The ancient Greek word used in the story is pithos, a large storage jar commonly used for grain, wine, or oil. Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora opening this container and releasing the troubles that had previously been kept inside. The familiar “box” comes from a later translation tradition, not from the earliest surviving Greek account.
The mistranslation is usually associated with the Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. When translating the Greek story into Latin, Erasmus used pyxis, meaning a small box or container, instead of preserving the original pithos. That wording helped “Pandora’s box” become the standard expression in European languages.
Modern retellings often picture a small decorative box, but the original image was a substantial earthenware jar. The distinction matters because it shows how a translation helped reshape one of the best-known myths in Western culture.