Misconceptions about Pandora's Box: September Theme

Since Suzanne and I recently turned in our edits on the galleys for the next Goddess Girls book--Pandora the Curious--there's a misconception on my mind. The one about Pandora's Box. Turns out it was really probably a jar. A big one called a pithos. Pithos were tall earthenware jars typically used for wine or olive oil storage and shipment. They were used all over the Mediterranean in ancient times. They're often big--five or six feet tall, with handles.

How did this misconception get started? Mostly likely because of a Latin mistranslation of the Greek poet, Hesiod's Pandora tale. The word "pithos" was misconstrued as "pyxis," the Greek word for box. Then, the famous pre-Raphaelite artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Pandora with a box in the 1800s, and the box misconception was firmly entrenched in the minds of the public.
Since the box is such a tradition by now, and our Goddess Girls series is not nonfiction, we went with the box in our book! 

Comments

  1. Isn't that funny how misconceptions get entrenched in our culture? Great post...

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