Erasmus used the Latin word pyxis for Pandora's Greek storage jar, helping create the phrase “Pandora's box.”
The earliest Greek text uses pithos, a large jar. In translating the story into Latin, Erasmus of Rotterdam selected pyxis, a word for a small box or container. Later European writers inherited this wording, and the box became the standard object in English-language retellings.
This translation history explains a common point of confusion: the original myth and the familiar idiom are not identical in material detail. Erasmus was a major Renaissance scholar whose translations and editions influenced how classical literature circulated in Europe. The modern phrase became so established that “to open Pandora's box” now means to begin a process that releases many unforeseen problems, even when speakers have no intention of referring directly to Greek mythology.