In Greek mythology, Pandora’s story is chiefly told in which poem by Hesiod?

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In Greek mythology, Pandora’s story is chiefly told in Hesiod’s poem Works and Days. This didactic poem contains the best-known ancient account of her creation, marriage, and jar.

Works and Days combines advice about farming, justice, labor, and the organization of human life with myths explaining why mortals experience hardship. The Pandora episode appears in that context, following the conflict between Zeus and Prometheus. It describes how the gods made Pandora and how the container’s contents escaped after she opened it.

Hesiod’s Theogony also mentions Pandora, but it gives a shorter treatment rather than the full familiar narrative. The Iliad and Odyssey, the epic poems associated with Homer, are not the primary surviving sources for the Pandora episode. This source distinction matters because modern retellings often blend details from different Greek myths and later artistic traditions.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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