In which Hesiod poem does the main ancient account of Pandora’s box appear?

The main ancient account of Pandora’s box appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days.

Works and Days is a Greek didactic poem that combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining the human condition. Its Pandora passage follows the story of Prometheus’s theft of fire and describes how Zeus’s punishment brings evils into the world.

The poem does not call the container a box. It describes a jar, which later translation and artistic tradition transformed into the familiar “Pandora’s box.” The passage also says that hope remains inside after the other troubles escape.

Works and Days is especially valuable because it joins mythology to practical concerns such as labor, seasonal farming, morality, and relations between gods and humans. The Pandora episode is therefore part of a larger poem about why life requires work and why justice matters.