Works and Days describes Pandora’s creation as part of Zeus’s punishment for stolen fire.
The poem, attributed to Hesiod, links Pandora to the conflict between Zeus and Prometheus. After Prometheus gives fire to humans, Zeus orders the gods to make a woman whose arrival will bring suffering to mortals. The story then continues with Pandora opening the storage jar and releasing destructive forces.
Works and Days is not only a mythological narrative. It is also a didactic poem about farming, seasonal labor, justice, household conduct, and the hardships of human life. Pandora’s story appears within that wider explanation of why people must work and why life contains unavoidable troubles.
Theogony, another poem attributed to Hesiod, mentions Pandora-related material but does not provide the same extended jar episode. That distinction matters because the complete familiar narrative is most directly associated with Works and Days.