The ancient Greek vessel identified in Hesiod’s Pandora story is a pithos.
A pithos was a large storage jar used in the ancient Mediterranean, especially for commodities such as grain, oil, or wine. It was much larger and more practical than the small container suggested by the modern phrase “Pandora’s box.” The vessel’s shape and function belong to the material culture of Hesiod’s world.
The “box” tradition arose through a translation history rather than from the original Greek wording. The Latin phrase pyxis Pandorae used a word associated with a box or small container, and that expression influenced later European languages and artistic representations.
An amphora is another well-known Greek vessel, but it normally has two handles and a narrower profile. A krater was used for mixing wine and water, while a kylix was a drinking cup. Those vessels belong to Greek pottery vocabulary but are not the container in Pandora’s ancient story.