In which poem does Hesiod tell the full story of Pandora opening the jar?

Hesiod tells the full story of Pandora opening the jar in Works and Days. This ancient Greek didactic poem combines practical guidance with myths about justice, labor, farming, and the condition of human life. Its Pandora episode appears in the poem’s discussion of why hardship exists.

The narrative follows Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire. The gods create and adorn Pandora, and she is sent to Epimetheus. When she opens the storage jar, destructive forces spread among humanity, while hope remains inside. The episode serves as part of Hesiod’s explanation of the separation between an earlier imagined age and the difficult human present.

Hesiod’s Theogony also refers to Pandora, but it does not provide the complete jar-opening narrative found in Works and Days. The Iliad and Odyssey, traditionally attributed to Homer, are different epics and do not supply the standard Pandora story. Later writers, artists, and translators expanded the myth in many directions.