Hesiod’s original Greek myth says Pandora opened a jar.
In the Greek text, the container is a pithos, a large storage vessel commonly used for grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s Works and Days does not call it a box. The “box” wording arose through a Renaissance translation tradition, especially after Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis, which can mean a box or small container.
The change became so influential that “Pandora’s box” is now the standard English expression. Modern illustrations usually show a compact decorated box, even though a pithos would have been a much larger earthenware jar.
The container holds destructive forces that escape when Pandora opens it. This detail makes the story a traditional myth of origins: it explains how troubles entered human life while preserving a final remnant inside the vessel.