In Hesiod’s account, which poem tells the story of Pandora opening the jar?

Hesiod’s Works and Days tells the story of Pandora opening the jar. The poem is a didactic Greek work combining mythology, farming advice, moral instruction, and thoughts about justice.

Pandora appears in the poem’s account of why human life contains suffering. Zeus has Pandora made and sends her to Epimetheus, whose acceptance of her leads to the opening of the sealed vessel. The story is presented alongside the myth of Prometheus and the theft of fire.

Hesiod also discusses the Five Ages of Man, beginning with a Golden Age and progressing through later, harsher ages. This context matters because Pandora’s story explains the arrival of evils, while the ages describe the decline of human conditions.

The Theogony, another poem by Hesiod, mentions Pandora-related events but does not provide the same full narrative. Works and Days is therefore the standard answer when asking where the jar-opening episode is told.