In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, Pandora opened a jar. The original Greek word is pithos, a large storage vessel, rather than a small modern box.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose from a later translation tradition. In the sixteenth century, the humanist Erasmus rendered the Greek vessel as a Latin pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That choice helped establish the expression used in English and many other languages.
The jar contained destructive forces or evils that had previously been kept away from human life. When Pandora opened it, these troubles escaped and spread among humanity. Hope remained inside, according to the usual reading of Hesiod’s account, although scholars have debated whether its continued presence is comforting, ambiguous, or part of Zeus’s design.
Ancient storage jars could be large household vessels, so imagining a tiny jewelry box gives the myth the wrong physical setting. The container’s translation history explains why the modern title differs from the earliest Greek wording.