Hesiod first gives the name Pandora to Zeus’s creation in the surviving Greek literary tradition.
Hesiod, an archaic Greek poet usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, tells the story in Works and Days. He also presents a related account in the Theogony, though the Works and Days version gives the fullest narrative about Pandora, Epimetheus, and the jar.
The story belongs to oral and mythic traditions that may have circulated before Hesiod wrote them down. Saying Hesiod gives the earliest surviving literary account does not prove that he invented every element. It identifies the earliest extant Greek author whose text preserves the named character in this form.
Homer is traditionally associated with the Iliad and Odyssey, while Ovid and Virgil were Roman poets writing centuries later. Later Roman and European authors adapted Greek myths, but they are not the earliest surviving source for Pandora’s named story.