The ancient Greek word for the large storage jar later miscalled Pandora’s box is pithos. In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora opens a pithos containing harmful forces or evils, rather than a small wooden box.
A pithos was a large ceramic storage container used in the ancient Greek world. Such jars could hold agricultural products, including grain, oil, or wine, and were often substantially larger than the portable vessels suggested by the English phrase “Pandora’s box.” The word is commonly transliterated from Greek as pithos.
The “box” wording became established through later translation and retelling. Renaissance traditions helped popularize the familiar image, and the phrase became so famous that it now refers broadly to an action whose consequences are difficult to control. Other Greek vessels had different forms and uses: a krater mixed wine, a kylix was a drinking cup, and an amphora was a two-handled storage or transport jar. None is the specific vessel named in Hesiod’s account.