8

Why is it so popular to say that it was a box when it was actually a jar?

Anonymous
  • 83
  • 3
  • 5
    Essentially, the same reason why any other misconception is popular - it rarely gets corrected enough, and the consequences of the misconception are minuscule. It just gets repeated so much, in art, in movies, in literature, that it remains popular. – cmw Oct 03 '15 at 21:21
  • See Wikipedia. – HDE 226868 Oct 04 '15 at 15:33
  • Thanks @C.M.Weimer - Can you post it as an answer so I can close this? – Anonymous Oct 04 '15 at 21:27
  • 1
    I thought the "jar" referred to her womb? – user3791372 Oct 06 '15 at 21:13
  • @user3791372 do you remember who said that (this makes sense, because the myth discusses gender [by modern standards, incorrectly] -- Pandora was a woman who tempted mortals and released evil etc.) –  Oct 08 '15 at 17:17
  • @Hamlet I think I saw it on tv a few weeks ago. The opening, representing the availability of sex, and what came out of it representing child birth etc. I don't know if this was a contentious view. – user3791372 Oct 08 '15 at 17:33
  • @user3791372 newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pandora's_Box I don't think it should be contentious: it seems pretty logical to me. I first read the story when I was a child, so it makes sense that I didn't notice that aspect of the story. But it's completely logical, and I've read plenty of stories as an adult where similar symbolism is used. However, I'm skeptical that the greeks intended the jar to represent the "availability" of sex -- that sounds like a modern interpretation. –  Oct 09 '15 at 01:46
  • The Ancient Greeks used had sex as much as we do - it isn't a new invention! Shakespeare is plentiful with the coarse sexual innuendo's and isn't something a modern audience is reading into it! Who knows, but the analogy fits – user3791372 Oct 09 '15 at 03:06
  • @user3791372 no, it's just that the opening of pandora's box is portrayed as a bad thing (e.g. all the deceases escaped from the jar), and I'm not sure if the Greeks thought that sex/childbirth was bad. I agree with you that the jar represents the female womb (see the url in my previous comment). If you would like to discuss this further, you should ask a question about the symbolism/meaning of pandora's jar. –  Oct 11 '15 at 00:17

2 Answers2

8

Essentially, the same reason why any other misconception is popular - it rarely gets corrected enough, and the consequences of the misconception are minuscule.

First, it originated as a mistranslation by Erasmus, on account of whom others, especially poets and painters, represented the jar as a box. Once something gets into the popular imagination, it's difficult to leave. Just look at the featherless, fatless dinosaurs in Jurassic World.

Apart from the visual aspect, "Pandora's box" has now become a saying, and saying's are notoriously difficult to change, even when wrong.

Also, though, the type of jar mentioned, a pithos, is meant for storage, and is often plugged up with cork and wax. However, the action of snapping the lid quickly doesn't exist for a pithos, so when recalling the memory of the story, the vivid actions tend to override the more inconsequential details, leaving the incorrect details in the retelling. From there, it's a simple snowball effect.

Sources:

The Adages of Erasmus, ed. by William W. Barker, Toronto: p. xxxix

Also, Wikipedia has a few paintings, showing it's early popularity. Interestingly, I remember Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life also had Pandora's box (as a wooden jewelry box) in the movie, once again demonstrating the visual aspects.

cmw
  • 7,301
  • 28
  • 59
0

C.M. Weiner has provided an admirable answer.

The difference in volume between a pithos and a pyxis may also reflect an ideological difference.

Notorious for their misogyny, archaic Greeks viewed women as much more pernicious than Renaissance humanists did. As a pyxis is less than capacious (of evil), so too is womankind according to this Christian intellectual.

Peter
  • 517
  • 2
  • 3
  • hi Peter. Quick question: what's the translation of pithos and pyxis (for people, like me, who don't know greek). –  Oct 08 '15 at 20:40
  • Pithos is a jar typically used to store things like wine or olive oil. Pyxis is more appropriately a box. – cmw Oct 08 '15 at 23:34
  • 1
    However, I don't see the ideological differences in play. I cannot see how a pyxis is a less "capacious of evil [sic]" than a pithos. Care to explain further with reputable sources? – cmw Oct 08 '15 at 23:36
  • 1
    A pithos is a large vessel -- large enough in fact for a person to be buried in. A pyxis is relatively small. To Hesiod, a woman's potential evil is pithos-sized; to Erasmus, that potential is only the size of a pyxis. Christian humanists, generally speaking, had a healthier view of women than archaic Greeks -- of course, by humanists and Greeks I refer to males. – Peter Nov 06 '15 at 02:06
  • @C.M.Weimer Peter, when you make a comment responding to someone else, be sure to include @name somewhere in the comment so that they will get a notification (e.g @C.M.Weimer). –  Dec 05 '15 at 00:37
  • @Peter Thanks for bringing up the Erasmus. Don't rule out that the use of πυξίς carries a metaphor, not unrelated to the oil-jar pithou in that it can also stand for a "cylinder in which a piston works" (i.e. the female generative organ). This meaning is one of the usages of "box" in English, and can certainly be taken as commentary on Hesiod's version of the Pandora myth in Theogony. – DukeZhou Jan 13 '17 at 19:12