In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora carried a jar that unleashed troubles on humanity.
The ancient Greek text describes a pithos, a large earthenware storage vessel. Pandora opens it, allowing illnesses, suffering, and other destructive forces to spread among humans. She closes it before everything inside escapes, leaving hope in the vessel according to the traditional translation.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose through later translation history. The Renaissance scholar Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or container, when translating the Greek story. English tradition then popularized the word “box,” even though Hesiod’s original object was a jar.
This distinction matters because a pithos was not a small jewelry box. Large storage jars were common in the ancient Mediterranean and could hold grain, wine, or oil. Modern illustrations often show a compact decorated box, reflecting the later expression rather than the vessel described by Hesiod.