Before later translations called it a box, Pandora’s container was called a pithos in ancient Greek. The term refers to a large storage jar, not the small box commonly shown in popular culture.
The distinction comes from the wording of Hesiod’s story. The Greek poet describes a pithos, a vessel familiar in the ancient Mediterranean world. During the Renaissance, Erasmus translated the container with the Latin term pyxis, which means a box or small container. That choice helped establish the English phrase “Pandora’s box.”
Pyxis and pithos are therefore related to the translation history but are not interchangeable answers to the original Greek term. A pyxis was generally a smaller container, while a pithos could be large enough for substantial household storage. The modern idiom survived even though the earliest text points to a jar.