The Greek word for the jar in Pandora’s myth is pithos.
A pithos was a large storage container used in the ancient Greek world, commonly for agricultural goods such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s surviving Greek text uses this word when describing the container associated with Pandora. It does not specifically mean a small box.
The familiar English expression developed after later translators and retellings rendered the vessel differently. A famous Latin translation associated with Erasmus used the word pyxis, meaning a box or small container. That choice helped establish the image that dominates modern language and art.
The distinction matters because the jar’s scale changes the visual story. An ancient pithos could be a substantial household or storeroom vessel, whereas “Pandora’s box” suggests a compact object. Both the original jar and the later box belong to the same myth, but pithos is the more precise term for Hesiod’s version.