Hesiod first described Pandora’s creation in Theogony.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His Theogony presents the origins and genealogies of the gods, and it includes an account of the creation of the first woman as part of Zeus’s response to Prometheus.
Hesiod develops the story further in Works and Days, where Pandora’s jar and the release of evils receive their most famous treatment. The two poems overlap in subject but do not function as identical versions. Theogony emphasizes the divine creation and the consequences for human life, while Works and Days gives the jar episode its central narrative form.
Homer is often named as a default answer for ancient Greek poetry, but the Pandora material is associated with Hesiod, not with the Homeric epics. Later writers and artists expanded the myth far beyond Hesiod’s surviving accounts.