In which century BCE did Hesiod probably compose the Pandora story in Works and Days?
Answer
7th century BCE
Hesiod probably composed the Pandora story in Works and Days during the 7th century BCE.
Works and Days is generally dated to around 700 BCE, placing it in the early archaic period of Greek literature. The poem combines advice about farming and justice with myths that explain why human life includes labor, suffering, and moral difficulty.
Its Pandora episode is one of the earliest surviving literary accounts of her creation and the opening of the storage jar. Hesiod also discusses Pandora in Theogony, but Works and Days supplies the fuller narrative sequence involving Zeus, Prometheus, Epimetheus, the gods’ gifts, and the escaping evils.
The date is approximate rather than tied to a securely recorded year. Ancient biographies of Hesiod are late and uncertain, so historians use language, style, and comparison with other early Greek poetry to place the poem around 700 BCE.