In Hesiod’s myth, Pandora’s container was originally called a jar. The Greek word pithos refers to a large storage jar, not a small wooden box.
Hesiod uses the jar in Works and Days, written in the Archaic period of Greek literature. Pandora opens it, releasing troubles into the world, while one beneficial thing remains inside. The later “box” wording arose through a Renaissance translation associated with Erasmus, who rendered the Greek vessel as a box.
The common expression therefore reflects a translation history rather than the earliest surviving version of the story. A pithos was a substantial ceramic container used in the ancient Greek world for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine. This distinction is often confused with the modern image of a hinged box.