The Greek name of the large storage jar associated with Pandora’s Box is pithos.
A pithos was a large ceramic storage container used in the ancient Greek world. Such jars could hold foodstuffs, liquids, or other materials and were often much larger than the small boxes shown in modern illustrations. Hesiod’s Greek text uses this kind of vessel in the Pandora story.
The “box” wording arose through translation. When the myth passed into Latin, the Greek container was associated with pyxis, a smaller box or container. Later European languages and artists adopted the box image, eventually making “Pandora’s box” the standard phrase.
A pithos is not the same as an amphora. Amphorae typically have two handles and a narrower profile, while pithoi are large storage jars. The distinction matters because it explains why the original myth’s object does not look like the familiar modern box.