Which ancient Greek poem by Hesiod first tells the story of Pandora and her jar?

Hesiod’s Works and Days first tells the story of Pandora and her jar.

The poem, usually dated to the seventh century BCE, combines farming advice, moral teaching, and myths explaining humanity’s difficult condition. In its account, Zeus has Pandora created after Prometheus gives fire to humans. Pandora’s arrival introduces a container whose opening releases troubles into the world.

Hesiod also mentions Pandora in his Theogony, but that earlier or roughly contemporary poem does not provide the same complete narrative of the jar. The modern phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from later translation and retelling, not from the wording of Works and Days itself.

Works and Days is therefore the key ancient literary source for the familiar myth. Its story is closely connected with the poem’s broader themes of labor, justice, restraint, and the consequences of disobedience.