Pyxis is the Latin word for a small box that helped create the modern “Pandora’s box” expression.
Hesiod’s original Greek story describes a pithos, a large storage jar. In a Renaissance translation associated with Erasmus, the Greek vessel was rendered as pyxis. A pyxis was a small cylindrical container, often used for cosmetics, jewelry, or other valuable items, and it created a very different mental image from a monumental storage jar.
The translation became influential because Erasmus’s Adagia circulated widely among European readers. Over time, the box version became standard in English and many other languages, while the original jar remained familiar mainly to classicists and historians of Greek literature.
Pyxis should not be confused with Pandora’s name or with the Greek word pithos. The distinction is useful when comparing ancient texts with later translations: the myth is ancient, but the compact-box image is largely a product of reception history.