Hesiod first gave the detailed Pandora story in Works and Days.
Works and Days is an ancient Greek didactic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod, who probably lived in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. The poem combines practical advice about farming and justice with myths explaining why human life includes labor, hardship, and suffering.
Its Pandora episode follows the story of Prometheus and fire. Zeus orders the creation of the first woman, the gods give her various qualities, and she receives the storage jar that contains the world’s troubles. Her opening of the jar provides a mythic explanation for the presence of evils among humans while preserving hope in the vessel.
Hesiod also refers to Pandora in the Theogony, but Works and Days supplies the fuller narrative. Homer is often associated with early Greek epic, yet the surviving Homeric poems do not provide this detailed account of Pandora. The story’s exact interpretation depends on translating and reading Hesiod’s archaic Greek carefully.