The modern English object commonly substituted for Pandora’s original Greek pithos is a box.
In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora’s container is described with the Greek word pithos, meaning a large storage jar. Such jars were used in the ancient Mediterranean for commodities including grain, wine, and oil. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose through a Renaissance-era translation tradition rather than from the earliest Greek wording.
The Latin scholar Erasmus helped popularize the box interpretation in the sixteenth century. His rendering used a Latin term associated with a container or box, and that version became influential in European languages. English then preserved “Pandora’s box” as the standard expression.
This is a translation history, not a change in the central plot. The myth still concerns a sealed vessel whose opening releases evils or troubles. The word “box” is culturally familiar, while the archaeological image is closer to a large ceramic jar.