The ancient Greek name for the large storage jar often mistranslated as Pandora’s “box” is pithos.
In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora receives a pithos, a large container used in the ancient Greek world for storing commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. The Greek word was later rendered inaccurately in some traditions, helping create the familiar expression “Pandora’s box.” The better-known phrase is now so established that the original jar is often forgotten.
The mistranslation is usually associated with Renaissance humanist Erasmus, who used the Latin word pyxis, meaning a small box or container, when translating the relevant passage. English and other European traditions then popularized the box image.
A pithos is not the same as an amphora. An amphora generally has two handles and a narrower profile, while a pithos is a much larger storage jar. The myth’s exact vessel matters because it shows how a translation choice reshaped one of the world’s most recognizable expressions.