Pandora’s vessel was traditionally called a jar in the ancient Greek accounts.
Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos, a large storage jar commonly used for agricultural goods such as grain, oil, or wine. In Works and Days, Pandora opens this vessel and releases troubles that had previously been kept away from humanity.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed through later translation and retelling. The Renaissance humanist Erasmus helped popularize the box wording when he translated or discussed the story in Latin, and the phrase eventually became standard in English.
A pithos was not a small modern jar; it could be a large earthenware container. “Amphora” is also an ancient Greek vessel, but it is not the specific term used for Pandora’s container in Hesiod’s account.