Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos for the container Pandora opens in the original myth.
A pithos was a large storage jar, commonly used in the ancient Greek world for goods such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s account in Works and Days describes Pandora lifting its lid and releasing troubles into the world, while hope remains inside.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation tradition rather than Hesiod’s exact wording. In the sixteenth century, the Latin humanist Erasmus translated the Greek term using a word associated with a small box or casket. That choice helped establish the modern expression.
The container is therefore not originally a box in the archaeological sense. It is better understood as a large earthenware jar, and pithos is the most precise answer when discussing the Greek text.