In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora’s container is called a pithos.
A pithos was a large ancient Greek storage jar, commonly used for grain, oil, wine, or other supplies. Hesiod’s Greek wording identifies Pandora’s vessel as a pithos rather than using the modern word “box.”
The familiar box image comes mainly from later translation and artistic tradition. The Latin expression “pyxis Pandōrae,” meaning Pandora’s box, helped move the story toward a smaller container in European culture. A pyxis was a small lidded box, while a pithos was a much larger jar.
This distinction matters because the container’s original form is one of the myth’s most frequently simplified details. Archaeological pithoi could be tall and substantial, sometimes large enough to store a household’s food supply.