Hesiod is credited with writing Works and Days, the Greek poem that contains the most detailed version of Pandora’s story.
Works and Days is a didactic poem combining advice about farming, justice, labor, and proper conduct with myths explaining the human condition. The Pandora episode appears in its discussion of why suffering and difficult work affect mortals.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, although that account gives less narrative detail about the jar. Together, the two poems are among the earliest surviving literary sources for the character.
Hesiod lived in archaic Greece, usually dated around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. He is often discussed alongside Homer as one of the earliest major Greek poets, but Works and Days has a more instructional and personal tone than the epic poems associated with Homer.