The ancient Greek container in Hesiod’s Pandora story was a pithos. A pithos was a large earthenware storage jar used for commodities such as grain, wine, or oil, making it quite different from the small box suggested by the modern English phrase.
Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos in Works and Days. The container holds the destructive conditions released into the world, including diseases and other troubles. Later European translators and retellers transformed the jar into a box, and “Pandora’s box” became the familiar idiom.
An amphora is another kind of Greek vessel, but it normally has two handles and a narrower body, while a pithos was generally much larger and intended for storage. A krater was used for mixing wine and water, and a kylix was a drinking cup.
Because “Pandora’s box” is so deeply established in English, the original vessel is often overlooked. Archaeological pithoi have been found throughout the ancient Mediterranean.