In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, the original Greek container was called a pithos. A pithos was a large storage jar, usually made from terracotta and used for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine.
Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora opening a pithos, not a small wooden box. The familiar “Pandora’s box” wording arose later through a translation tradition. The Greek word pithos was rendered into Latin as pyxis, a term associated with a box or container, helping create the modern expression.
The distinction matters because the container’s scale changes the image of the story. A pithos was a substantial household vessel, often large enough to stand on the floor. “Pandora’s jar” is therefore closer to the ancient Greek wording than “Pandora’s box,” although the latter is now the standard English phrase.