In Hesiod’s story of Pandora, the container usually translated as “box” was a jar. The original Greek word is pithos, a large storage vessel commonly used for grain, wine, oil, or other goods.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation tradition. In the sixteenth century, the humanist scholar Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container, when translating the myth. That choice helped establish the expression known today.
Hesiod’s account in Works and Days does not present Pandora opening a small hinged box. Instead, the jar holds the troubles Zeus released into the human world. Hope remains inside after Pandora closes the vessel, depending on how the passage is interpreted.
The distinction matters because the jar was an ordinary ancient household and agricultural object, not a magical box. Greek pithoi could be enormous, and archaeological examples show that they were important storage containers across the ancient Mediterranean.