Hesiod used the Greek word pithos for the large storage jar later turned into Pandora’s “box.”
A pithos was a substantial ceramic container used in the ancient Greek world for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. It was generally much larger and more jar-like than the small box imagined by modern retellings.
The “box” wording became established through translation history. The influential Renaissance scholar Erasmus rendered the container using the Latin word pyxis, meaning a small box or casket, rather than preserving the original pithos. That choice shaped the familiar English expression “Pandora’s box.”
The translation issue matters because the container’s scale changes the visual scene. Hesiod’s story involves a domestic storage vessel, not necessarily a specially decorated chest. Modern scholarship usually retains pithos when discussing the original Greek wording, while “Pandora’s box” remains the standard English idiom.