Hesiod described Pandora’s creation and the jar in his poem Works and Days.
Hesiod was an early Greek poet who is generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Works and Days is a didactic poem combining farming advice, moral instruction, mythology, and reflections on justice. Its account of Pandora is the earliest surviving extended literary version of the story.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, although the two poems present different emphases. In Works and Days, Zeus’s punishment of humanity is connected with Pandora and the release of destructive forces from her container. The poem’s account is therefore a foundational source for later versions of the myth.
The story is sometimes casually attributed to Homer because Homer is the most famous early Greek poet. No surviving Homeric epic provides the classic Pandora narrative. Hesiod is the specific ancient author associated with the surviving account.