Hesiod describes Pandora as the first woman created by the gods.
In Works and Days, Hesiod presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire. The gods create and adorn her, then send her to humanity. Her arrival introduces a new condition for humans and forms part of Hesiod’s explanation of why life involves labor and suffering.
Hesiod also tells a related version in the Theogony, although the accounts differ in detail and emphasis. The Works and Days narrative gives the fullest surviving ancient description of the jar episode.
Homer is sometimes named in broad discussions of Greek mythology because he is another major early Greek poet, but he does not provide the canonical Pandora story. Pindar and Sappho likewise do not replace Hesiod as the principal ancient source for this myth.