Pandora - Pithos Into "box"

Pithos Into "box"

The mistranslation of pithos, a large storage jar, as "box" is usually attributed to the sixteenth century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam when he translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Hesiod's pithos refers to a large storage jar, often half-buried in the ground, used for wine, oil or grain. It can also refer to a funerary jar.

Erasmus, however, translated pithos into the Latin word pyxis, meaning "box". The phrase "Pandora's box" has endured ever since.

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Famous quotes containing the word box:

    I shall return in the dark and be seen,
    Be led to my own room by well-intentioned hands,
    Placed in a box with a lid whose underside is dark
    So as to grow....
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)