Hesiod first recorded the Pandora myth in surviving Greek literature.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet who probably lived around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His Works and Days contains the best-known account of Pandora’s creation, the vessel, and the release of evils into the world. The episode is part of a larger explanation of why human life involves labor and suffering.
Hesiod also discusses Pandora in the Theogony, although the presentation there is shorter and focused on the origins of women and human hardship. The two poems are important sources for understanding the myth before its later artistic and literary adaptations.
Homer is often named as a possible alternative because he is another major early Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the standard Pandora narrative. Later authors expanded, interpreted, and sometimes altered details, including the vessel’s description.