Hesiod gives the fullest surviving ancient Greek account of Pandora’s creation and her vessel. His poem Works and Days contains the best-known version of the story, while Theogony also mentions Pandora’s creation in a related context.
Hesiod was an archaic Greek poet generally dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His works are among the earliest surviving Greek literary texts and are major sources for Greek genealogy, divine stories, and ideas about human labor.
The Pandora narrative in Works and Days is part of a broader explanation for why human life involves toil and hardship. It follows the conflict between Zeus and Prometheus and connects divine punishment with the conditions of mortal existence.
Homer is sometimes assumed to be the source because he is another famous early Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the full Pandora story. Hesiod is the crucial literary source.