Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora’s creation and the opening of her jar.
The poem is an archaic Greek work traditionally attributed to Hesiod, who probably lived around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. It combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining why human life includes hardship and labor.
Pandora appears in the poem after Prometheus steals fire for humanity. Zeus responds by arranging the creation of a woman whose arrival will bring trouble to mortals. The narrative in Works and Days is the earliest surviving full account of Pandora’s story.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but that poem gives a shorter account and does not tell the jar-opening episode in the same detail. A common mix-up is assuming that all Greek myths survive in one standardized version; ancient authors often told related stories differently.