Hesiod describes Pandora as the first woman in the ancient Greek myth.
The story appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days, where Zeus orders her creation after Prometheus gives fire to humanity. Pandora is fashioned from earth and equipped with gifts from several gods before being sent to humans. Her arrival is presented as a punishment that changes the human condition.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, although the fuller narrative appears in Works and Days. These poems are among the earliest surviving Greek literary sources for the myth and date to the archaic period, usually placed around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE.
Later writers and artists expand the story in different ways, but Hesiod remains the key early literary source. The myth’s famous container, its contents, and Pandora’s relationship with Epimetheus all come from this tradition.