In the ancient Greek version of Pandora’s story, Pandora opened a jar rather than a box.
Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos, a large earthenware storage vessel. Such containers could hold agricultural goods or other materials, so the image is different from the small wooden box familiar in modern illustrations and idioms.
The “box” wording became established through later transmission and translation. A Renaissance-era Latin interpretation helped move the story toward the expression pyxis Pandorae, or “Pandora’s box,” and that phrase became influential in European languages and literature.
This is one of the most important distinctions between the original myth and its modern form. Saying “Pandora’s box” is historically conventional and completely understandable, but saying that Hesiod described a jar is more precise. The change in container did not alter the story’s central ideas about curiosity, divine punishment, suffering, and the survival of hope.