Erasmus popularized the “box” wording that replaced Pandora’s original Greek storage jar.
Hesiod’s Works and Days uses the Greek word pithos, referring to a large jar or storage vessel. During the Renaissance, the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated or adapted the story in Latin and used the word pyxis, commonly understood as a small box or casket. That choice helped establish the expression “Pandora’s box” in European languages.
The change was influential because Erasmus’s Adagia circulated widely as a collection of classical proverbs and explanations. Readers encountered the Pandora story through this Latin tradition rather than directly through the original Greek text.
The “box” version is now far more familiar in English, but it is not the vessel described by Hesiod. This is a translation and transmission issue, not a separate ancient Greek version of the myth. Modern references often mention both terms to distinguish the original jar from the later box.