In the Pandora myth, the large storage jar is called a pithos.
Hesiod’s Greek text uses the word pithos, a term for a large earthenware storage jar. Such vessels could hold grain, oil, wine, or other supplies, and they were much larger and more practical than the small box suggested by modern English illustrations.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” arose through a translation history. The Renaissance scholar Erasmus rendered the vessel using the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or casket, helping establish the wording that became standard in European languages.
The translation creates a common misconception: the earliest surviving Greek account does not describe Pandora opening a small box. It describes a pithos, and ancient pottery terminology was broader and more context-dependent than modern object labels.