The Greek word for the large storage jar in Hesiod's Pandora story is pithos.
A pithos was a large ceramic storage container used in the ancient Greek world, commonly for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod's choice of vessel fits that practical ancient context. The object was not originally described as a small hinged box.
The “box” wording became established through later translation and cultural transmission. A well-known explanation connects the change to the Renaissance humanist Erasmus, who used the Latin word pyxis, meaning box, in a 1508 retelling or translation tradition. The modern phrase then became far more familiar than the ancient jar.
This distinction matters because the container's scale changes the visual meaning of the myth. A large household storage jar belongs to the world of agriculture and subsistence, the same world that dominates Works and Days.