In which Hesiod poem does the fullest ancient version of the Pandora jar story appear?

The fullest ancient version of the Pandora jar story appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days.

Works and Days is a Greek didactic poem about justice, farming, labor, and human conduct. Within its account of why life is difficult, Hesiod describes Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire, the creation of Pandora, and the escape of evils from the sealed vessel.

Hesiod also mentions Pandora in Theogony, but that poem gives a shorter and less detailed treatment than Works and Days. The later phrase “Pandora’s box” does not appear in Hesiod’s Greek text, and his container is a pithos, or large jar.

The poem is usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Its Pandora episode became the foundational source for later Greek, Roman, European, and modern adaptations. Details such as hope remaining inside the vessel have therefore traveled through many versions, sometimes with meanings different from those suggested by the original poem.