In Hesiod’s Pandora story, Pandora opened a jar, not a box.
The earliest surviving literary accounts use the Greek word pithos, a large storage vessel commonly used for grain, oil, or other goods. Hesiod’s Works and Days says Pandora lifted the lid and released the evils or troubles contained inside. The story was later reshaped by translation and artistic convention, producing the familiar English phrase “Pandora’s box.”
The jar-versus-box distinction is one of the myth’s most common points of confusion. Erasmus’s Latin translation used pyxis, a small box or container, helping establish the modern wording. Greek pithoi could be very large, sometimes approaching human height, so the original vessel was not necessarily a small household jar. The traditional expression remains “Pandora’s box,” but the specific object in Hesiod’s account is a jar.