Hesiod describes Pandora as the first woman in the surviving ancient Greek literary tradition.
Hesiod, an archaic Greek poet, tells the Pandora story in Works and Days. In that account, Zeus commands the gods to create a woman after Prometheus gives fire to humans. Pandora is presented as a specially fashioned figure and as the beginning of woman’s presence in the mythic human world.
Hesiod also refers to Pandora in the Theogony, although the fuller narrative of her creation and the jar appears in Works and Days. Homer does not provide the same detailed account of Pandora’s creation, which is why Hesiod is the key ancient author for this myth.
The phrase “first woman” belongs to the mythic framework, not to a historical claim about human origins. Ancient Greek stories vary in detail, and later writers reshape Pandora’s role. Still, Hesiod’s account is the principal surviving source for the standard story familiar today.