In the Pandora myth, Hesiod described a pithos rather than a modern box.
A pithos was a large ancient Greek storage jar, commonly used for goods such as grain, oil, or wine. These vessels could be substantial and were often made from clay. The object in the myth is therefore better imagined as a container or jar than as a small hinged chest.
The word “box” entered the familiar version through a later Latin translation tradition. Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container, in a sixteenth-century rendering. That choice helped establish the expression “Pandora’s box” in European languages, even though Hesiod’s original imagery was different.
This distinction matters because the jar belongs to the material world of ancient Greek storage and burial practices. The myth does not depend on a particular modern-looking object. Its central idea is that hidden contents are released when a sealed vessel is opened, while later artists and writers freely changed the vessel’s shape.