Hesiod’s Works and Days tells the story of Pandora’s creation and opening of the jar.
Works and Days is a didactic poem attributed to Hesiod, probably composed in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Its themes include farming, justice, labor, morality, and the difficult conditions of human life. The Pandora episode appears while Hesiod explains why suffering and toil exist in the world.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but the two poems do different things. The Theogony focuses mainly on the origins and genealogy of the gods, while Works and Days gives the fuller narrative of Pandora’s formation, her gifts from the gods, and the opening of the container.
The poem is not a modern novel with a single continuous plot. It is a mixture of mythological stories, practical advice, moral teaching, and reflections on justice. The Pandora passage is therefore part of a larger argument about humanity’s relationship with the gods and the hardships of mortal life.