In the original Greek myth, Pandora’s “box” is a jar. Hesiod describes the container with the Greek word pithos, a large storage jar rather than a small wooden box.
The familiar “box” wording developed through later translations and retellings. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus translated the Greek vessel into Latin as pyxis, a term associated with a box or container, helping establish the expression used in English.
The jar belongs to the story in Hesiod’s Works and Days, where Pandora opens it and releases troubles into the world. Modern illustrations often show a hinged box, but that image reflects later artistic tradition rather than Hesiod’s original object. The myth does not describe the container as a modern rectangular box with a lid.