In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora was the first human to open the container.
Hesiod presents Pandora as the woman created by the gods and sent to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. She opens the storage jar, allowing the evils held inside to escape into the world. The text does not frame the act as a modern-style adventure or as a detailed sequence of repeated attempts; it gives the opening as the decisive event in the myth.
Epimetheus is important because he accepts Pandora despite Prometheus’s warning not to receive gifts from Zeus. That warning and the later opening of the jar connect the myth to the contrast between foresight and hindsight: Prometheus’s name is associated with forethought, while Epimetheus’s is associated with afterthought.
Some retellings make curiosity the central motive, but Hesiod’s surviving account is more compressed and does not provide the elaborate personality-driven scene common in modern adaptations.