DID YOU KNOW…
Pandora's 'Box' Was Originally a Jar!
Did you know? The infamous container Pandora opened in Greek mythology, unleashing evils upon humanity, was originally a large storage jar (pithos), not the 'box' commonly depicted today.
The popular image of Pandora's 'Box' stems from a mistranslation of the Greek word *pithos*, which refers to a large earthenware storage jar. This error occurred in the 16th century when Erasmus of Rotterdam translated Hesiod's work, mistakenly rendering *pithos* as *pyxis*, meaning a small box or casket. This linguistic shift, perpetuated through subsequent interpretations, fundamentally changed the common understanding and visual representation of the myth. In antiquity, a *pithos* was a ubiquitous household item for storing provisions like wine or grain, making the release of evils from such an everyday object a more relatable, and perhaps more unsettling, event than from a specially crafted, ornate container.
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