Later translations turned Pandora’s Greek jar into a box.
Hesiod’s original word is pithos, a large storage jar used in the ancient Greek world. It was not a small wooden box. Pithoi could hold grain, wine, oil, or other supplies, and some were large enough to stand taller than a person. In the myth, the vessel contains the troubles released into the human world when Pandora opens it.
The “box” wording became established through a Latin translation associated with the Renaissance scholar Erasmus. He used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container, instead of preserving the Greek pithos. European retellings then popularized “Pandora’s box” as the standard expression.
This translation history explains why modern illustrations usually show Pandora opening a hinged box even though the earliest surviving literary account describes a jar. The common phrase is therefore famous, but it is not a literal description of Hesiod’s original vessel.