The Greek word for the large storage jar in Pandora’s story is pithos.
Hesiod’s Works and Days uses the Greek noun pithos, a substantial jar commonly used to store commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. It was not the small hinged container suggested by the modern phrase “Pandora’s box.”
The change from jar to box is generally connected with a Renaissance translation tradition. Erasmus of Rotterdam used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a box or small container, in a sixteenth-century version. That wording became influential in European languages and helped establish the familiar expression.
This translation issue is one of the most common facts associated with the myth. A pithos could be large enough to function as household storage, making the story’s image different from the neat decorative box shown in many paintings and illustrations. Amphora is another Greek vessel, but it typically has two handles and is not the word used in this myth.