In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, the container later called Pandora’s box was a pithos.
A pithos was a large ancient Greek storage jar, commonly used for grain, wine, oil, or other goods. Hesiod used the Greek word pithos in Works and Days, rather than describing a small box. The familiar “box” wording arose much later through translation and retelling.
The myth says Zeus gave Pandora a sealed container after Prometheus stole fire for humanity. Pandora opened it, releasing the world’s troubles, while hope remained inside. The story is therefore about a jar in its earliest surviving literary form, not a literal box.
Pithoi could be extremely large and were often made of thick pottery. They are also known from archaeological sites across the Greek world, including storage rooms and tombs. A common mistake is to treat “Pandora’s box” as Hesiod’s exact phrase; “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the original text.