In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Hesiod gives the earliest surviving full account of Pandora’s creation.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Works and Days presents Pandora in the context of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus takes fire. The poem describes the gods contributing gifts before Pandora is sent to Epimetheus.
Hesiod also discusses Pandora in Theogony, although the two poems emphasize different parts of the story. Works and Days is especially important for the narrative involving the container and the release of human troubles. It is the principal ancient source behind the later “Pandora’s box” tradition.
Homer is a plausible confusion because the Iliad and Odyssey are foundational Greek epics, but Pandora is not given this complete creation narrative in Homer. Ovid and Virgil wrote later in Latin and are not the earliest surviving source for the myth.