In Hesiod’s surviving accounts, Pandora opens a jar, not a box. The Greek word pithos describes a large storage jar, usually made of clay and used for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed much later through a translation tradition. In the sixteenth century, the humanist Desiderius Erasmus rendered pithos as pyxis, a Greek term associated with a small box or container. That choice helped establish the expression used in modern languages.
The original jar was not a small decorative box. A pithos could be a substantial household or agricultural vessel, making it a more realistic container for the myth’s escaped evils. Ancient Greek storage jars were important objects in everyday life and ritual.
Modern illustrations commonly show Pandora lifting a lid from a box, so the jar detail is frequently overlooked. The title “Pandora’s Box” is now firmly established, but “Pandora’s jar” is closer to Hesiod’s wording and imagery.