Hesiod used the word pithos for Pandora’s container.
The term appears in Works and Days, Hesiod’s didactic poem about labor, justice, farming, and human misfortune. In the poem’s account, the gods send Pandora to humanity and she opens a large storage vessel, releasing troubles into the world. Hesiod’s wording is the earliest surviving literary evidence for the story’s container.
Pithos was a practical Greek vessel rather than a decorative jewelry box. Large pithoi were made from clay and could be taller than a person. They were used in households, storerooms, and archaeological contexts across the Greek world.
Homer is sometimes guessed because he is the other best-known early Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not give this Pandora narrative. Sappho and Pindar also wrote in different poetic traditions and are not the source of this episode.