The 16th-century scholar Erasmus helped popularize the expression “Pandora’s box” in Europe.
Erasmus included a reference to Pandora in his Adagia, a major collection of classical proverbs and explanations first published in 1500. His treatment helped spread the Latin phrase pyxis Pandorae, meaning “Pandora’s box,” even though Hesiod’s original vessel was a pithos, or large jar.
The translation shift became extremely influential. Renaissance readers encountered the classical story through Latin scholarship, and the word “box” became the standard image in many later European retellings. As a result, modern speakers usually refer to Pandora’s box even when discussing the ancient Greek version.
Erasmus was a Dutch humanist, theologian, and classical scholar whose works circulated widely across Europe. He did not invent the underlying myth; rather, his proverb collection helped transmit and standardize a later wording of it.