The original Greek term for the container later called Pandora’s box was pithos. A pithos was a large storage jar, commonly used in the ancient Greek world for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine.
Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora opening a pithos, not a small wooden box. The familiar “Pandora’s box” wording became established much later through translation history. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus is commonly credited with helping popularize the Latin phrase pyxis Pandorae, or “Pandora’s box,” after translating the Greek vessel as a box.
This translation created one of the most enduring examples of a later expression reshaping an ancient story. A krater was a mixing vessel, an amphora was a two-handled storage or transport jar, and a kylix was a drinking cup; none is the container named in Hesiod’s account. The traditional modern phrase remains “Pandora’s box,” even though “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the Greek text.