In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, the Greek word for her storage jar is pithos.
A pithos was a large ceramic storage container used in the ancient Greek world, especially for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod uses the word in the Pandora story, where the container holds the evils or troubles that spread among humanity after it is opened. The word is central to the history of the familiar expression “Pandora’s box.”
The “box” version became standard in many languages after the sixteenth-century humanist Erasmus translated the Greek term as pyxis, a small box or casket. That translation helped create the modern idiom, although it does not match Hesiod’s original container. The pithos was much larger and more practical than the compact box usually shown in art.
Krater, amphora, and kylix are also Greek vessel terms, but they describe different forms and uses. An amphora generally has two handles and a narrower neck, while a kylix is a drinking cup and a krater is a mixing vessel.