In Hesiod’s “Works and Days,” Pandora opens a jar, not a box. The Greek word used for the container is pithos, a large storage jar commonly used in the ancient Mediterranean for goods such as grain, oil, or wine.
The familiar English phrase “Pandora’s box” arose later. In the 16th century, the humanist Erasmus translated the Greek container term into Latin as pyxis, meaning a small box or chest. That wording helped establish the image used in modern languages.
The difference matters because many retellings treat the box as an original detail. It is not the container described in Hesiod’s surviving version. The jar tradition is also why some modern translations call the story “Pandora’s jar.”