Which ancient Greek poem first records Pandora’s story in a surviving literary work?

Works and Days is the surviving ancient Greek poem that first records Pandora’s story in literary form.

The poem is traditionally attributed to Hesiod and is usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. It combines practical advice about farming and justice with myths explaining why human life includes labor and suffering. Pandora appears in the poem as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire.

Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, another early Greek poem traditionally attributed to him. The Theogony gives a shorter account, while Works and Days provides the fuller narrative involving Pandora’s creation, Epimetheus, the vessel, and the release of troubles.

The Iliad and the Odyssey are attributed to Homer and do not contain the familiar Pandora episode. The modern phrase “Pandora’s box” also differs from Hesiod’s wording: the Greek object is a pithos, generally understood as a large jar. Therefore Works and Days is the most specific canonical source for the best-known version of the myth.