Hesiod first recorded the name Pandora in a surviving ancient Greek text.
Hesiod, probably active in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, presents Pandora in both Works and Days and the Theogony. Works and Days gives the fuller narrative: Zeus orders the creation of the first woman, the gods equip her with gifts, and her opening of the storage vessel releases suffering into the human world.
Homer’s surviving epics do not provide the familiar Pandora episode, and later Roman writers such as Ovid retold related myths rather than originating the surviving Greek account. Hesiod’s version is therefore the essential ancient source for the name, the creation story, and the vessel episode.
The word “first” here refers to surviving written literature, not necessarily the date when every part of the story was invented. Greek myths circulated orally before being written down, and some details may have developed through earlier traditions that are no longer preserved.