In Hesiod’s Works and Days, the container Pandora opened was called a pithos.
A pithos was a large ancient Greek storage jar, usually made of pottery and used for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s wording identifies this kind of vessel rather than a small hinged box. The container became a box in later European retellings and translations.
The change is often connected with the influential Latin tradition and with Renaissance-era interpretation. Erasmus’s Latin phrase “pyxis Pandorae,” meaning Pandora’s box, helped establish the expression that remains familiar in English.
This translation history explains a frequent misconception. The myth does not require Pandora to open a modern chest or wooden box; its earliest famous literary version describes a jar. The vessel’s contents are evils or troubles released into the human world, with hope remaining inside in Hesiod’s account.