In Hesiod’s original Greek story, Pandora opened a pithos, a large storage jar.
The word pithos refers to a substantial Greek vessel used for storing commodities such as grain, wine, or oil. Hesiod’s Works and Days describes the container as a jar, and the Greek term is commonly transliterated as pithos. The familiar English expression “Pandora’s box” developed much later through translation and cultural adaptation.
The change from jar to box is a famous example of how a myth can shift as it passes between languages. In the sixteenth century, the humanist Erasmus translated the Greek term into Latin as pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That rendering helped establish the form that became standard in European languages.
Modern illustrations usually show a small decorative box, but that image does not match the large household storage jar implied by Hesiod. The pithos detail matters because it connects Pandora’s story with ordinary ancient Greek material culture, not merely with a symbolic fantasy object.