Hesiod first tells the surviving literary story of Pandora’s creation and the jar in Works and Days.
Hesiod was an early Greek poet usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His Works and Days is a didactic poem that discusses farming, justice, labor, and the condition of human life. The Pandora episode appears within an explanation of why suffering and hard work exist in the world.
Hesiod also discusses Pandora in the Theogony, but the fuller account of the container and the release of evils is associated especially with Works and Days. These poems are among the earliest surviving sources for Greek mythology, although they preserve traditions that may have circulated orally before being written down.
Homer is another major early Greek poet, but the Pandora story is not primarily a Homeric episode. Later authors, artists, translators, and filmmakers expanded or altered the myth, which is why modern versions can differ from Hesiod’s text.