The modern English phrase that comes from changing Pandora’s Greek jar into a box is “Pandora’s box.”
Hesiod’s original Greek story uses pithos, a large storage jar. The expression “Pandora’s box” developed through later Latin translation, especially the use of pyxis, a word for a box or small container. That translation choice became influential in European retellings and eventually fixed the English idiom.
Today, “opening Pandora’s box” means starting a process that creates many unexpected problems. The phrase is used in journalism, politics, law, science, and everyday conversation, often without reference to Greek mythology. It is useful to distinguish the idiom from the ancient source: the jar is the object in Hesiod, while the box belongs to the later transmission of the story. The myth also does not establish every modern detail, such as a specific key, lock, or deliberate act of curiosity.