In Hesiod’s original Greek account, Pandora opened a jar, not a box.
Hesiod used the Greek word pithos, which refers to a large storage jar commonly used for grain, wine, or oil. In Works and Days, Pandora removes the lid of this container and releases the many troubles kept inside. The text does not describe the object as a small wooden box.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed through a translation history. The sixteenth-century humanist Erasmus translated pithos into the Latin pyxis, meaning box or small container, and that wording became influential in European languages.
The jar detail matters because it changes the visual scale of the myth. A pithos was a substantial household vessel, sometimes large enough to store supplies. Modern art and popular culture usually show a decorative box because the later phrase is more memorable, but “Pandora’s jar” is closer to Hesiod’s Greek wording.