In Hesiod’s poem Works and Days, Pandora is described as the first of women.
Hesiod presents Pandora as a created figure in a story explaining humanity’s troubles. Zeus orders her making after Prometheus steals fire for humans. Gods give her different qualities, and Hermes brings her to Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother.
The phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from this myth, but Hesiod’s original container was a large jar, not a box. The later box wording developed through translation and artistic tradition. Pandora herself is not simply portrayed as an ordinary human woman: she is fashioned by the gods and supplied with gifts that help make her persuasive and captivating.
Works and Days is one of the two major surviving poems associated with Hesiod. The other is Theogony, which focuses more on divine genealogy. Pandora’s story in Works and Days links the arrival of women, marriage, labor, and suffering to the mythic explanation of the human condition.