In Greek mythology, a pithos was the container associated with Pandora’s contents.
The Greek word pithos refers to a large storage jar, commonly used for grain, wine, or oil. Hesiod’s earliest account does not describe a small box in the modern sense. Instead, it says that Pandora’s jar was opened, releasing evils into the world while one thing remained inside.
The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” developed through a translation history. In the sixteenth century, the humanist Erasmus rendered the Greek container as a Latin pyxis, meaning a box or small case. That choice helped establish the wording used in many modern languages.
The myth is therefore often misremembered as involving a wooden chest. In classical Greek imagery, a large earthenware storage jar is the more accurate object. The story appears in Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, although the two poems emphasize different parts of Pandora’s creation and role.