Which Renaissance scholar first popularized the phrase “Pandora’s box” in a 1508 collection of proverbs?

Desiderius Erasmus first popularized the phrase “Pandora’s box” in a 1508 collection of proverbs.

The ancient Greek story described Pandora’s container as a large storage jar, or pithos, rather than a box. The familiar box wording became influential through Renaissance Latin retellings, especially the work of Desiderius Erasmus. His Adagia, a collection of classical proverbs and sayings, helped spread the expression in European learned culture.

The shift from jar to box is often linked to translation and interpretation. A Greek word for a large vessel could be rendered into Latin in a way that encouraged the later “box” tradition, and the compact phrase proved memorable. Modern English therefore preserves a version of the story that differs from Hesiod’s original object.

Today, opening Pandora’s box means starting a process that creates many unexpected difficulties. The expression can be used even when no literal mythological reference is intended, but its background remains the story in which Pandora opens a container holding troubles.