Which ancient Greek poem says Pandora’s vessel contained hope?

Hesiod’s Works and Days says that hope remained in Pandora’s vessel. This poem is the principal ancient source for the version of the Pandora story in which a container is opened and evils spread throughout the world.

Works and Days is a didactic poem combining advice about farming, justice, work, seafaring, and proper conduct with myths explaining the human condition. Pandora appears in its account of why suffering and toil affect humanity. The poem’s discussion of the vessel is brief, but its final image—evils released while hope remains inside—became enormously influential.

Hesiod also refers to Pandora in the Theogony, but that earlier poem does not provide the same complete container episode. The Iliad and Odyssey are Homeric epics and do not tell this familiar Pandora story. This distinction matters because later summaries often combine material from multiple Greek literary traditions.