Erasmus introduced the word “box” into the familiar phrase “Pandora’s box.” The ancient Greek versions describe Pandora receiving a large storage jar, called a pithos, rather than a small box.
The Renaissance humanist Erasmus used the Latin expression pyxis Pandorae, meaning “Pandora’s box,” in his 1508 collection Adagia. This wording helped establish the form that became common in later European languages.
The change was probably connected with translation and interpretation rather than a new ancient Greek version of the myth. Modern retellings therefore preserve “Pandora’s box,” even though “Pandora’s jar” is closer to Hesiod’s original imagery.