Which ancient Greek poem gives the fullest account of Pandora opening the vessel?

Works and Days gives the fullest ancient Greek account of Pandora opening the vessel.

The poem is traditionally attributed to Hesiod and combines moral instruction, farming advice, calendrical guidance, and myth. Its Pandora passage explains the origin of human troubles after Prometheus’s theft of fire. Pandora opens the storage jar, the harmful contents escape, and Hope remains inside.

Hesiod’s Theogony also mentions Pandora, but its treatment is shorter and concentrates on her creation and the consequences of Prometheus’s conflict with Zeus. The Iliad and Odyssey are Homeric epics and do not provide the canonical full narrative of Pandora’s vessel. The Argonautica is a much later Greek epic associated with Apollonius Rhodius.

The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” can obscure the poem’s original object: a pithos, or large jar. Works and Days is therefore the key ancient source for the opening scene, while later writers and artists helped shape the version known in modern culture.