In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora lifts the lid after opening the container.
Hesiod does not call the object a box in the surviving Greek text. He describes a large storage jar, commonly identified with the Greek word pithos. Pandora opens its lid, allowing destructive troubles to escape into the world. The surviving account does not describe her turning a key or breaking a seal.
The famous phrase “Pandora’s box” arose later through a translation tradition. The sixteenth-century humanist Erasmus translated the Greek container as a box, or pyxis, rather than preserving the image of a storage jar. That choice shaped the expression used in many modern languages.
The jar’s lid is important because the myth’s action is not usually presented as a complicated mechanical opening. Pandora opens the container, the evils escape, and she closes it again after Hope remains inside. Artistic versions often add details that are not specified by Hesiod.