In the Greek myth of Pandora’s box, Pandora opened a pithos, a large storage jar, rather than a box.
Hesiod’s Greek word is pithos, which commonly referred to a substantial ceramic container used for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine. The vessel in the story held the troubles that would spread among humanity when its lid was opened.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose from a later translation tradition. In the sixteenth century, the humanist Erasmus rendered pithos as the Latin pyxis, meaning a small box or container, helping establish the wording used in many modern languages.
The jar-versus-box distinction is important because the original myth describes an everyday large storage vessel, not a small hinged box. Modern retellings usually preserve the phrase “Pandora’s box” even when they mention the older Greek object.