Hesiod’s Works and Days gives the fullest early version of Pandora’s story. The poem presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire for mortals.
In Hesiod’s narrative, the gods help create Pandora and give her various attributes. She is sent to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning not to receive gifts from Zeus. Pandora then opens a container, releasing troubles into the world while Hope remains inside.
Hesiod also refers to Pandora in the Theogony, but that poem provides a shorter account and does not tell the story in the same narrative detail. The Works and Days passage is therefore the key ancient literary source for the familiar sequence involving Pandora, Epimetheus, the jar, and the release of human evils. Later authors and artists adapted the story, often changing the container into a box.