In the original Greek version of Pandora’s story, the world’s evils were kept in a jar.
Hesiod’s ancient Greek word is pithos, a large earthenware storage vessel used for grain, wine, oil, or other supplies. The word appears in accounts of Pandora’s myth, but later Latin and European translations rendered the object as a box. That translation helped establish the English phrase “Pandora’s box.”
The change matters because a pithos was a substantial household container rather than a small hinged box. Ancient Greek storage jars could be large enough to stand upright and hold valuable provisions. Artists and writers later adapted the object to suit their own visual traditions.
The jar’s opening releases disasters into the human world. In the usual version, hope remains inside when Pandora closes it, although ancient interpretations differ over whether hope is a comfort, a withheld blessing, or part of the troubling contents.