Erasmus popularized the English phrase “Pandora’s box” by translating the Greek jar as a box.
In Hesiod’s ancient Greek account, Pandora opens a pithos, a large storage jar or container. The familiar box is the result of a later translation tradition. The Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus used the Latin expression pyxis, meaning a box or small container, in his retelling of the story. That choice helped establish the form that became standard in European languages.
The change illustrates how myths can shift as they move between languages and historical periods. A pithos was a substantial vessel used for storage, whereas a box suggests a smaller container. Despite the difference, the later wording became so familiar that “Pandora’s box” is now the normal expression in English for an action that releases unexpected problems.
Erasmus did not invent Pandora or the opening episode. Hesiod’s Works and Days is the principal ancient source for the detailed story. The distinction is therefore between the ancient myth and the later wording that shaped its best-known name.