Pandora's box

In Greek mythology, Pandora's box is the large jar (πιθος pithos) carried by Pandora (Πανδώρα) that unleashed many evils on mankind – ills, toils and sickness – and hope.. Contrary to use in popular culture, Pandora's Box was not actually a box at all but rather it was a jar. Hence, the historically correct use of the phrase would be "Pandora's jar," not "Pandora's box."

Etymology of "box"

The original Greek word used was pithos which is a large pot which could be as large as a small human. Diogenes of Sinope was said to have once slept in a pithos. It was used for storage of wine or provisions, for example, for ritual purposes as a human's grave. In the case of Pandora, this jar may have been made of clay for use as storage as in the usual sense, or, instead, of bronze metal as an unbreakable prison.

The mistranslation of pithos as "box" is usually attributed to the 16th century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam when he translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Hesiod's pithos refers to a storage jar for oil or grain. Erasmus, however, translated pithos into the Latin word pyxis, meaning "box". The phrase "Pandora's box" has endured ever since. This misconception was further backed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting Pandora.

Opening of the "box"

After Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create the woman Pandora as part of the punishment for mankind. Pandora was given many seductive gifts from Aphrodite, Hermes, Hera, Charites, and Horae (according to Works and Days). For fear of additional reprisals, Prometheus warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen, and married Pandora. Pandora had been given a large jar and instruction by Zeus to keep it closed, but she had also been given the gift of curiosity, and ultimately opened it. When she opened it, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her box, there lay hope.

There is no reason to think Pandora acted out of malice in opening the jar, for she was exercising her curiosity, and when she saw what was let out of it, she quickly closed it.

Translation

The phrase "Pandora's box" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Simple English.

Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: صندوق باندورا, German: Büchse der Pandora, Esperanto: Skatolo de Pandora, Italian: Vaso di Pandora, Georgian: პანდორას ყუთი, Chinese: 潘朵拉的盒子.