Erasmus helped popularize Pandora’s “box” through a Latin retelling of the Greek myth.
The earliest Greek accounts describe Pandora opening a pithos, usually understood as a large storage jar, rather than a small box. In the Renaissance, the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus used the Latin term pyxis in his collection Adagia. That wording helped establish the familiar “Pandora’s box” version in later European tradition.
The shift illustrates how translation can alter a myth’s most recognizable detail. A pithos was a substantial container used in the ancient Mediterranean, whereas pyxis generally referred to a smaller box or casket. The English expression therefore reflects a long history of interpretation rather than the exact wording of Hesiod’s Greek text.
Erasmus’s Adagia was a major Renaissance collection of classical proverbs and stories. Its wide circulation helped spread the box image far beyond specialist knowledge of ancient Greek literature.