Hesiod is the ancient Greek poet who first names Pandora in surviving literature.
Pandora appears in two works attributed to Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days. Theogony briefly identifies her as a “beautiful evil” connected with the race of women, while Works and Days gives the fuller narrative of her creation, marriage to Epimetheus, and container.
Hesiod lived in the archaic period, usually dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, although the exact dates remain uncertain. Homer is often discussed alongside Hesiod as one of the earliest Greek poets, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the canonical Pandora story.
Later writers, artists, translators, and mythographers expanded the tale and helped shape its modern form. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is especially dependent on later reception rather than on Hesiod’s exact wording. Identifying Hesiod matters because his poems are the earliest surviving literary sources for the character and the myth’s basic structure.