Which ancient Greek poem tells the earliest surviving version of Pandora’s jar story?

Works and Days tells the earliest surviving version of Pandora’s jar story. The poem is attributed to Hesiod, an ancient Greek poet traditionally dated to around the eighth or seventh century BCE.

Hesiod presents Pandora’s creation as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire for people. The gods give Pandora various gifts, and Zeus sends her to Epimetheus. Her opening of the sealed vessel explains why sickness, labor, and other hardships exist in human life.

Hesiod also discusses farming, justice, household conduct, and the difficult realities of mortal existence. The Pandora episode is therefore embedded in a much larger didactic poem rather than standing alone as a separate fairy tale.

The Theogony, another poem associated with Hesiod, mentions Pandora in a related context but does not provide the complete jar narrative. The Iliad and Odyssey are Homeric epics and are not the source of this famous episode.