Definition of "pithos"

Pithos grave. The body was laid out in three pithoi, the easternmost and smallest (diam. ·40 m.) containing the skull, the middle pithos (diam. ·50 m.) containing arm bones and ribs; and the westernmost and largest (diam. ·76 m., see pl. 1) the leg bones.

1934, P. N. Ure, Reading University Studies: Aryballoi & Figurines from Rhitsona in Boeotia, Paperback edition, Cambridge University Press, page 10

Xenophon, Plato's contemporary, remarks that he finds pitiable those persons who, according to tradition, pour water into a perforated pithos, since they labor in vain.

2002, William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread, Cornell University Press, page 71

Only two Hellenistic pithoi in use in the Hellenistic period have been found intact and in situ at the Agora, as far as I am aware.

2006, Susan I. Rotroff, The Athenian Agora, Volume XXXIII: Hellenistic Pottery: The Plain Wares, ASCSA, page 98