The Greek name commonly given to the large storage jar in Pandora’s myth is pithos.
A pithos was a large ceramic storage vessel used in the ancient Greek world and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. It could hold agricultural products and other bulk goods, making it a more substantial object than the small decorative container often shown in modern illustrations of Pandora.
The word is important because Hesiod’s Greek text is understood to refer to this kind of vessel. The familiar expression Pandora’s box developed later through a Latin translation associated with Erasmus. As a result, modern speakers often picture a hinged wooden box even though the ancient image was a storage jar.
The alternative pottery terms are not interchangeable. A krater was primarily a mixing vessel for wine and water, a kylix was a drinking cup, and an amphora was a narrower two-handled container. Those objects belong to ancient pottery vocabulary, but pithos is the term linked specifically with Pandora’s container.