The Greek word pithos became the source of the modern “Pandora’s box” translation.
A pithos was a large storage jar used in the ancient Greek world for goods such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod uses this word when describing the container associated with Pandora. The vessel was therefore more like a substantial earthenware jar than a small hinged box.
The “box” version became established through a translation history associated with the Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus. His Latin rendering used the word pyxis, which means a small box or container. That choice helped shape the wording that became familiar in European languages and eventually produced the English expression “Pandora’s box.”
This is why museum discussions and classical references often distinguish the original pithos from the later box tradition. The myth’s central action remains the same, but the physical object has changed in popular imagination from a storage jar to a box.