In Hesiod’s Pandora story, the original Greek vessel was a jar, not a box.
The relevant Greek word is pithos, a large storage container commonly used for grain, oil, or other goods. In Works and Days, Pandora receives or opens this vessel, releasing the troubles that had previously been kept away from human life. The text does not describe the object as the small hinged box shown in many modern illustrations.
The “box” wording became established through a sixteenth-century Latin translation by the humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus rendered pithos using the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That translation shaped later European versions and gave the myth its familiar English title. The difference matters because a pithos was a substantial household storage jar, making the original scene materially different from the popular image of Pandora lifting a lid on a compact box.