Hesiod described Pandora as a punishment for humanity in Works and Days.
Works and Days is an ancient Greek poem combining moral advice, farming guidance, myths, and reflections on justice. Its Pandora episode explains why suffering and labor exist among humans after Zeus’s conflict with Prometheus.
Hesiod also discusses Pandora in the Theogony, but the two works do not present exactly the same emphasis. Works and Days gives the fuller account of the vessel and the release of troubles, making it the source most often associated with the familiar story.
Homer is another major early Greek poet, but Pandora is not a central figure in the surviving Homeric epics. Pindar and Aristophanes belong to later periods and are not the source of Hesiod’s creation narrative.