The Greek word pithos, used for Pandora’s container, most directly means storage jar.
A pithos was a large vessel used in ancient Greece and the wider Aegean world for storing commodities. These containers were often made of ceramic and could be tall enough to stand on the floor. Their practical purpose makes the vessel in Hesiod’s story different from the small decorative box common in modern pictures.
The translation history changed the object’s image. Erasmus rendered the Greek term into Latin as pyxis, a word associated with a box or small container. That later wording helped produce the enduring English expression “Pandora’s box,” even though Hesiod’s Greek says pithos.
The word also appears in archaeology and ancient-history writing for large storage jars. In modern English, “pithos” is usually retained when scholars want to preserve the original cultural and material detail.