Pithos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A substantial earthenware vessel from antiquity typically utilized for the storage of various substances like food or wine
2. An ancient clay jar designed primarily to hold dry or liquid materials, often found in archaeological contexts
3. A large ceramic container from ancient times commonly used to store grains, liquids, or other goods

Etymology: The Greek "pithos" was a large earthenware vessel, often big enough to hold grain, oil or wine, and in some cases a person could stand inside one. Ancient Greek households kept them in storerooms and cellars, sealed with clay, and they show up throughout Greek writing as ordinary household equipment. English borrowed the word directly from Greek to name the same kind of jar, so the term arrived in its original form rather than through Latin or French. The word's most famous appearance is in Greek myth, where Zeus keeps two jars at the threshold of heaven, one filled with blessings and one with evils. When Pandora opens the jar that contains human troubles, the miseries escape into the world, and hope alone remains inside. Readers of English encounter the vessel mostly through this story and through archaeology, where pithoi are excavated at Bronze Age and later sites across the Aegean.

Synonyms: jar, container