Erasmus helped popularize the phrase “Pandora’s box” through a Latin translation.
The Greek version of Hesiod’s story describes a pithos, a large jar. In the 16th century, the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the container as pyxis, a Latin term associated with a box or small container. The translation helped redirect the myth’s later English and European identity from a jar to a box.
This is a classic example of how translation can reshape a myth. Erasmus was not inventing a new story, but his choice influenced the wording repeated by later writers. Over time, “Pandora’s box” became a fixed expression for an action that releases many unforeseen problems.
The phrase is now much more familiar than “Pandora’s jar,” even though the latter better reflects Hesiod’s original terminology. The translation history also explains why images of the myth often show a compact box rather than a large ancient storage vessel.