In the original Greek version of Pandora’s story, the container was a pithos, a large storage jar. Hesiod used the Greek word pithos rather than a word meaning box or small chest.
A pithos was a substantial ceramic vessel used in the ancient Greek world for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine. Its size and practical role make it different from the compact box shown in many modern illustrations.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” became established through a later translation tradition. The Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus helped popularize the box wording when Latin translations rendered the vessel as pyxis, a term associated with a box or container.
This translation changed the visual identity of the myth without changing its central event: opening the vessel released troubles into the human world. “Pandora’s box” remains the standard expression in English even though “Pandora’s jar” is closer to Hesiod’s text.