In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, which work of ancient Greek poetry tells the myth?

Hesiod’s Works and Days tells the myth of Pandora. This ancient Greek didactic poem combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining why human life includes labor, suffering, and moral difficulty.

The Pandora episode appears in the poem’s discussion of Zeus, Prometheus, and the consequences of the theft of fire. Hesiod describes the woman created by the gods and the storage vessel that contains destructive forces. The story is therefore embedded in a larger poem about work, social order, and the proper conduct of human life.

Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but the fuller narrative of her creation and the opening of the vessel is associated especially with the Works and Days. The two poems are among the principal surviving works connected with Hesiod, although their exact dates and relationship remain subjects of scholarly discussion.

The poem survives through manuscript transmission and has been translated many times. Translation choices influence familiar details, including whether the vessel is called a jar, chest, or box.