In Hesiod’s account, Works and Days gives the fullest story of Pandora and her container. The poem is an archaic Greek work that combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining the human condition. Its Pandora episode appears in the section describing how suffering entered the world.
The poem says that Zeus ordered the creation of a woman as punishment connected with Prometheus’s theft of fire. Pandora receives gifts from the gods and is sent to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning. Hesiod describes a storage vessel containing troubles, rather than using the later standard phrase “Pandora’s box.”
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but that poem provides a shorter account. The distinction matters because later artists and writers often combine details from several traditions. Works and Days is the key ancient source for the narrative sequence involving Pandora, Epimetheus, the vessel, and the release of troubles.