Hesiod first described Pandora’s jar in the ancient Greek poem Works and Days.
Works and Days is a didactic poem traditionally dated to around 700 BC. It combines advice about farming and justice with myths explaining the human condition, including the creation of Pandora and the release of evils from her container. The poem is one of the two major works associated with Hesiod, alongside the Theogony.
Hesiod’s account differs in emphasis from later popular retellings. It presents Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus’s theft of fire, and it identifies the container as a pithos rather than a box. Hesiod also presents hope as remaining within the vessel after the other evils escape.
Homer is often confused with Hesiod because both poets are central figures in early Greek literature and are frequently discussed together. However, the surviving Pandora narrative is specifically associated with Hesiod’s Works and Days, not with an episode in Homer’s epics.