Hesiod first described Pandora as the source of humanity’s troubles in surviving Greek literature.
His Works and Days, usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, tells how Zeus arranged for Pandora to be created after Prometheus stole fire for humans. The poem presents her arrival and the opening of the jar as the explanation for why suffering and hardship exist in human life.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but Works and Days contains the fuller narrative. These poems are the earliest surviving literary sources for the myth, which means later paintings, novels, and popular summaries should not automatically be treated as the original version.
Hesiod was a Boeotian poet traditionally associated with Ascra. He is often studied alongside Homer as one of the foundational poets of archaic Greek literature, though their biographies are uncertain and the dates of both figures remain approximate.