In Greek mythology, what kind of object is Pandora’s pithos?

In Greek mythology, Pandora’s pithos is a large storage jar.

A pithos was a substantial ancient Greek container used for storing goods such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod uses this word in the story of Pandora. The object was therefore closer to a large household or agricultural storage jar than to a small hinged box.

The expression “Pandora’s box” became dominant through a translation history. In a Latin rendering associated with the Renaissance scholar Erasmus, the Greek pithos was treated as a pyxis, a word meaning box or container. That change helped establish the phrase used in modern English and many other languages.

The jar-versus-box distinction is one of the most frequently discussed details of the myth. It does not change the story’s central event, but it does matter when describing the earliest written version accurately. Modern artworks often show a decorated box because that is the established popular image.