The ancient Greek word for the large storage jar in the Pandora myth is pithos.
In Works and Days, Hesiod describes a pithos, a substantial earthenware container used in the ancient Greek world for storing commodities such as grain, wine, or oil. The myth does not originally describe a small hinged box. Pandora opens the container, and harmful forces emerge before she closes it again.
The modern phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from a translation history rather than from Hesiod’s exact object. The Renaissance scholar Erasmus used the Latin term pyxis, meaning a box or small container, when presenting the story in a Latin context. That choice helped establish the wording now familiar in many languages.
An amphora is a different ceramic form, normally recognized by its two handles and narrower body. A krater was used for mixing wine and water, while a lekythos was a smaller vessel associated especially with oil. Those terms should not be substituted for pithos here.