Pithos is the Greek name for the large storage jar in which Pandora’s evils were kept. In ancient Greece, a pithos was a substantial ceramic container used for storing commodities such as grain, wine, and olive oil.
Hesiod’s wording is the basis for the jar tradition. The later phrase “Pandora’s box” arose through a Renaissance translation associated with Desiderius Erasmus, who used a term meaning box. Because the modern expression became much more famous, the original Greek object is frequently overlooked.
A pithos was not the same as every Greek ceramic vessel. An amphora usually had two handles and a narrower shape, a krater was used for mixing wine and water, and a lekythos was a smaller vessel often associated with oil. These distinctions make pithos the specific archaeological and linguistic answer.