In Hesiod’s version of Pandora’s myth, she opened a jar.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation and reinterpretation. Hesiod, writing in ancient Greece, used the word pithos, which refers to a large storage jar or vessel. Such jars were used for commodities including grain, wine, and oil, so the original image is closer to a household storage container than to a small box.
The story appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, although the accounts differ in detail. In the narrative, Pandora or the household opens the vessel, releasing the evils that had previously been contained. The modern expression became much more widespread than the original jar image.
The container is often pictured as a decorative box because of the Latin translation pyxis, which can mean a box or small container. This translation helped establish the English phrase “Pandora’s box,” even though “Pandora’s jar” is closer to Hesiod’s wording.