Pandora’s container was called a pithos in the original Greek myth.
A pithos was a large storage jar used in ancient Greece, commonly for agricultural products such as grain, oil, or wine. Hesiod’s Greek text describes Pandora opening this kind of vessel, not a small box.
The familiar expression “Pandora’s Box” developed later through translation history. The Renaissance scholar Erasmus used the Latin term pyxis, meaning a box or small container, in a Latin version of the myth. That wording helped establish the title now used in English and many other languages.
The distinction matters because the object’s original form reflects an everyday storage vessel rather than a decorative chest. Ancient Greek pottery terminology can be confusing, since different vessels had different shapes and uses. A pithos was generally much larger and more utilitarian than an amphora.