Hesiod first recorded the story now known as Pandora’s box in the poem Works and Days. He was an early Greek poet traditionally dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE.
Hesiod gives Pandora a central role in an explanation of why suffering and hardship exist in human life. His account follows the conflict involving Zeus, Prometheus, and the gift of fire. Pandora is fashioned by the gods and sent to Epimetheus, who accepts her despite Prometheus’s warning.
Hesiod also presents a related version in the Theogony, making the myth part of a wider account of divine order and human misery. The two poems are important evidence for early Greek mythology, although details differ from later retellings.
Homer is associated with the Iliad and Odyssey, but he is not the surviving source for Pandora’s container story. Sappho was a lyric poet, and Pindar was a later lyric poet known for victory odes.