Which ancient Greek poem pairs Pandora’s story with advice about farming and justice?

*Works and Days* pairs Pandora’s story with advice about farming and justice.

The poem is attributed to Hesiod and is usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. It is a didactic work addressed to Hesiod’s brother Perses, combining practical guidance about agricultural labor, sailing, household conduct, and religious observance with reflections on justice and human hardship.

The Pandora episode appears within that broader argument. Hesiod uses the myth to explain why humans must work and why suffering exists, linking the divine punishment to the conditions of ordinary mortal life. The story is therefore not an isolated fairy tale in its original setting; it supports the poem’s larger moral and social themes.

Readers often know Pandora through the phrase “Pandora’s box” and may assume the story comes from an epic such as *The Iliad*. It does not. Hesiod’s *Theogony* also mentions Pandora, but *Works and Days* is the poem containing the more developed jar-opening narrative.