In the Greek myth of Pandora, the container later mistranslated as a “box” was a pithos.
A pithos was a large storage jar used in the ancient Greek world, commonly for commodities such as grain or oil. Hesiod’s original account describes this kind of vessel rather than a small hinged box. The modern title “Pandora’s box” became established through later translation and artistic tradition.
The distinction is more than a vocabulary footnote. A large jar fits the agricultural and household setting of Hesiod’s poem, while the image of a compact box encourages later artists and readers to imagine a different object. The myth’s core event remains the opening of the container and the escape of evils.
An amphora is another Greek vessel, but it is not the specific word associated with Pandora’s container. A krater was used for mixing wine, and a kylix was a drinking cup. Those neighboring terms explain why identifying the vessel precisely requires the word pithos.