In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, the container Pandora opened was a pithos.
A pithos was a large ancient Greek storage jar, commonly used for grain, wine, oil, or other goods. Hesiod’s Greek wording refers to this kind of substantial vessel rather than a small box. The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” developed later through translation history.
The Latin scholar Erasmus helped popularize the “box” wording when he translated the Greek term into Latin as pyxis, meaning a small box or container. That choice strongly influenced the modern English phrase, even though a pithos was generally a large earthenware jar.
The container’s exact contents also changed in interpretation. Hesiod describes destructive forces escaping when Pandora opens it, while hope remains inside. The jar-versus-box distinction is therefore a translation issue, not a separate version of the myth.