In Hesiod’s Works and Days, the first woman created by the gods was Pandora.
Hesiod presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire for mortals. The gods give her gifts or attributes, and her name is commonly understood as meaning “all-gifted” or “all-giving.” The story appears in Works and Days, an ancient Greek didactic poem generally dated to the seventh century BCE.
Pandora is not described in the surviving ancient sources exactly like the modern popular version. Hesiod’s account emphasizes the creation of woman as a source of troubles for men and links her to a sealed storage vessel. Later retellings transformed that vessel into the familiar “box.”
The name Pandora also appears in other mythological contexts, including as a name associated with figures in Greek heroic genealogies. However, the woman who opens the container is specifically the Pandora of Hesiod’s myth.