In the Pandora myth, what kind of container did Pandora open?

In the Pandora myth, Pandora opened a pithos, an ancient Greek storage jar.

The word pithos referred to a large ceramic container used for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s Greek text describes Pandora opening a pithos, not a small hinged box. The container could be substantial and was part of ordinary storage technology in the ancient Greek world.

The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed through later translation and retelling. The Latin writer Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container, in a sixteenth-century discussion of the story. That wording helped establish the expression now common in English.

This translation history explains why modern illustrations usually show Pandora lifting a lid from a box. In the earliest literary version, however, the vessel is a jar. The distinction matters because “Pandora’s jar” more closely reflects Hesiod’s original description, while “Pandora’s box” is the established modern idiom.