In which Hesiod poem does the most detailed account of Pandora’s jar appear?

The most detailed account of Pandora’s jar appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days.

Works and Days is a didactic Greek poem concerned with work, justice, farming, social conduct, and the difficult conditions of human life. Within that setting, Hesiod tells how Zeus arranged for Pandora to be created after Prometheus deceived the gods and stole fire for humanity. Pandora then opened the vessel, releasing evils while hope remained inside.

Hesiod’s Theogony also refers to Pandora, but its treatment is briefer and more genealogical. The Theogony focuses on the origins and relationships of the gods, whereas Works and Days uses Pandora’s story to explain why suffering and toil characterize human existence.

The poem does not call the vessel a box. The Greek term pithos generally refers to a large storage jar. “Pandora’s box” became the conventional expression much later, especially through Latin and Renaissance transmission. This distinction explains why classical translations and modern summaries sometimes appear to disagree about the object itself.