Erasmus coined the misleading “Pandora’s box” wording by translating Hesiod’s jar as a box. The familiar English expression ultimately reflects a Renaissance translation choice rather than the vessel described in the earliest Greek text.
Hesiod uses the Greek word pithos, which refers to a large storage jar or container. In the sixteenth century, the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the passage into Latin and used pyxis, a word associated with a box or small container. That rendering helped establish the wording that later became standard in European languages.
The modern phrase is now so familiar that it is often projected backward onto Hesiod. Strictly speaking, “Pandora’s jar” is closer to the ancient account. Erasmus did not invent the myth; he helped shape the later vocabulary used to describe it.