In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora opened a pithos, a large Greek storage jar, rather than a box.
The Greek word pithos refers to a substantial earthenware container used for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s account describes Pandora opening this vessel and releasing evils into the human world. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose later through translation and cultural adaptation, not from Hesiod’s original wording.
The story appears in Works and Days, probably composed in the seventh century BCE. Hesiod does not describe the container as a small hinged box. The translation tradition gradually shifted the image toward a box, especially in Latin and later European languages.
A pithos could be large enough for a person to reach into, making it a fitting vessel in the myth. Archaeological examples from ancient Greece show their broad bodies and thick clay construction.