Hesiod described a pithos, a large storage jar, in the original Pandora myth.
The Greek word pithos referred to a substantial ceramic container used for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. It was not the small hinged box imagined by most modern illustrations. The translation shift happened centuries later, helping create the English expression “Pandora's box.”
The Renaissance humanist Erasmus is often credited with popularizing the box wording through a Latin translation tradition. His choice helped replace the original jar in Western retellings, even though the ancient Greek text points to a pithos.
This distinction matters because the myth's imagery is about a sealed household storage vessel rather than a portable jewelry box. Some modern scholars debate details of the translation, but pithos is the standard answer for the container in Hesiod's account.