Erasmus is often linked to the phrase “Pandora’s box.” The Dutch humanist’s Latin treatment helped popularize a box-like interpretation of the container that Hesiod had described as a pithos, or large jar.
The change illustrates how myths can shift through translation. A Greek storage jar was rendered or understood through Latin terminology associated with a box, and later European art and literature reinforced the new image.
Ovid wrote extensively about Greek mythology in Latin, but the familiar English phrase is especially associated with Renaissance reinterpretation rather than with Hesiod’s original wording. The exact history of the expression involves several translations and adaptations.
As a result, “Pandora’s box” is a standard modern phrase even though “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the earliest surviving Greek account.