In the Pandora myth, the container’s original Greek form was a pithos, a large storage jar.
Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos for the vessel associated with Pandora. A pithos was a substantial earthenware container used in the ancient Greek world for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. It was generally much larger and more storage-oriented than the small wooden box imagined by many modern illustrations.
The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” developed later through translation history. Erasmus, writing in Latin, rendered the Greek vessel as pyxis, a small box or casket. That choice helped establish the box image in European languages, even though Hesiod’s original object was a jar.
The common phrase is therefore historically influential but materially inaccurate when compared with the earliest surviving literary account. “Pandora’s jar” is a closer description of the Greek wording, while “Pandora’s box” remains the standard English expression.