The Greek vessel often mistranslated as Pandora’s “box” is a pithos.
A pithos was a large Greek storage jar, commonly used for goods such as grain, oil, or wine. In Works and Days, Hesiod uses the word pithos for the container associated with Pandora. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed later, after the vessel was rendered into Latin as a jar-like container and eventually became a box in European languages.
The change matters because a pithos is not a small hinged container. It could be a substantial earthenware vessel, sometimes large enough to stand on the floor. Modern paintings, books, and films often show a decorative chest because that image fits the English idiom.
Other Greek vessels had different shapes and uses. An amphora generally had two handles and a narrower neck, a krater was used for mixing wine and water, and a kylix was a drinking cup. None is the vessel named in Hesiod’s account.