A pithos was the Greek type of large storage jar that became known as Pandora’s “box.” Pithoi were substantial ceramic containers used in the ancient Greek world to store goods such as grain, olive oil, and wine. They could be large enough to stand on the floor and were not small boxes in the modern sense.
Hesiod’s Works and Days uses the word pithos for the container in Pandora’s story. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed through later translation and literary tradition, especially after the myth was transmitted into Latin and modern European languages. The changed object made the story easier for later audiences to picture but obscured the original material culture.
An amphora was another Greek ceramic vessel, usually characterized by two handles and a narrower shape, but it is not the container named in Hesiod’s account. A pithos was better suited to holding a large quantity of stored material, which fits the story’s image of many evils contained together.