Hesiod first recorded the surviving Greek myth of Pandora’s container.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. The Pandora story appears in two of his surviving works, Theogony and Works and Days, although the longer account of the jar and its contents is associated especially with Works and Days.
His version links Pandora to Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire and gave it to mortals. The myth explains the arrival of suffering while also preserving a place for hope. Hesiod’s poetry is among the earliest surviving Greek literature, making his account the key ancient source for this story.
Homer is sometimes guessed because he is another famous early Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the standard Pandora narrative. Later Greek and Roman writers expanded or reshaped many details, while Hesiod remains the foundational source.