Erasmus is commonly credited with turning Pandora’s jar into a box through translation.
The ancient Greek account uses pithos, a large storage jar, but the Latin expression introduced by the Renaissance humanist Erasmus helped establish the familiar “box” wording. His translation tradition became influential in European scholarship and retellings, allowing the altered object to become the standard image in later languages.
This is a history of transmission rather than a change made by Hesiod. The earliest surviving account does not describe a small hinged container. Modern artists, writers, educators, and advertisers usually follow the later box tradition because it is now embedded in the idiom “to open Pandora’s box.”
The attribution is often stated too simply. Translation choices developed within a wider history of copying, interpretation, and popular adaptation, rather than from one modern English translation. Still, Erasmus is the named Renaissance scholar most commonly associated with the decisive shift from jar to box.