In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora’s container was a pithos, a large ancient Greek storage jar.
The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation and tradition. Hesiod’s Greek text uses pithos, a vessel commonly associated with storing grain, oil, wine, or other goods. Large pithoi could be made of clay and kept partly underground or in storage rooms.
The shift from jar to box is often connected with the Renaissance scholar Erasmus, whose Latin rendering helped popularize the image of a box. The wording changed, but the central idea remained: opening a sealed container releases troubles that cannot easily be put back.
This distinction matters because the container’s size and function affect the myth’s imagery. A heavy storage jar suggests a household or agricultural setting, whereas a small box suggests a portable object. Both versions are now part of the cultural history of the story.