In which poem does Hesiod first tell the story of Pandora and her jar?

Hesiod first tells the story of Pandora in his poem Works and Days.

The poem, written in Archaic Greek probably around the seventh century BCE, combines farming advice, moral instruction, myths, and reflections on justice. Hesiod presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire for humans.

Hesiod also mentions the episode in Theogony, but that earlier mythographic passage does not provide the complete jar-opening narrative found in Works and Days. In Works and Days, the woman is created by the gods and sent to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning.

The familiar English expression “Pandora’s box” reflects a later translation tradition. Hesiod’s Greek word is pithos, meaning a large storage jar, not a small box. The poem therefore provides the earliest surviving literary account of the myth and the source for many later retellings.