In Hesiod’s *Works and Days*, Pandora’s vessel was called a pithos in ancient Greek.
A pithos was a large storage jar, commonly used in the ancient Greek world for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Its size and practical role differ from the compact hinged container suggested by the modern English phrase “Pandora’s box.” The distinction matters because the word “box” entered the tradition through later interpretation and translation.
Hesiod’s use of a pithos places Pandora’s story within the material culture of archaic Greece. Large jars could be substantial household or agricultural containers, not decorative little boxes. The myth’s imagery therefore involves opening a substantial vessel whose contents had been confined from humanity.
An amphora was also a Greek ceramic container, but it was usually a narrower two-handled vessel. A krater was used for mixing wine and water, while a kylix was a drinking cup. Those terms are real ancient Greek vessel names, but they do not identify Pandora’s container in Hesiod’s original account.