Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind In his version the box is opened by Epimetheus, whose name means 'Afterthought' – or as Hesiod comments, 'he whom mistakes made wise'. The context in which the story appeared was Erasmus' collection of proverbs, the Adagia (1508), in illustration of the Latin saying Malo accepto stultus sapit (from experiencing trouble a fool is made wise). The mistranslation of pithos is usually attributed to the 16th-century humanist Erasmus who, in his Latin account of the story of Pandora, changed the Greek pithos to pyxis, meaning 'box'. Many scholars see a close analogy between Pandora herself, who was made from clay, and the clay jar which dispenses evils. Pithoi were used for storage of wine, oil, grain or other provisions, or, ritually, as a container for a human body for burying, from which it was believed souls escaped and necessarily returned. The word translated as 'box' was actually a large jar (πίθος pithos) in Greek. A modern, more colloquial equivalent is 'to open a can of worms'. įrom this story has grown the idiom 'to open a Pandora's box', meaning to do or start something that will cause many unforeseen problems. Though she hastened to close the container, only one thing was left behind – usually translated as Hope, though it could also have the pessimistic meaning of 'deceptive expectation'.

Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world. According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus, the king of the gods, took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus.

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