Q 01/05

In which ancient poem does the story of Pandora's box first appear?

A) Virgil's Aeneid

B) Hesiod's Works and Days

C) Ovid's Metamorphoses

D) Homer's Iliad

Answer · why

B) Hesiod's Works and Days

Written around 700 BC, it is really a farmer's almanac addressed to Hesiod's brother Perses.

Q 02/05

What kind of container did the original Greek story actually describe?

A) A large storage jar

B) A wooden chest

C) A jewelled casket

D) A woven basket

Answer · why

A) A large storage jar

The Greek word was pithos, a big jar used for wine, oil, grain — or even as a coffin.

Q 03/05

What was the Greek word for the jar that later became a 'box'?

A) Kylix

B) Pithos

C) Amphora

D) Krater

Answer · why

B) Pithos

Diogenes the Cynic famously made his home in one.

Q 04/05

Which 16th-century humanist is usually blamed for mistranslating the jar as a box?

A) Petrarch

B) Martin Luther

C) Erasmus

D) Thomas More

Answer · why

C) Erasmus

In his Latin Adagia of 1508 he swapped the Greek pithos for pyxis, meaning box.

Q 05/05

Which Latin word for 'box' replaced the Greek jar in the 1508 Adagia?

A) Urna

B) Cista

C) Arca

D) Pyxis

Answer · why

D) Pyxis

His version of the story illustrated the proverb 'from experiencing trouble a fool is made wise'.