Hesiod first recorded the story of Pandora and the release of human troubles in surviving ancient Greek literature.
The myth appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days, a didactic poem generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, although the fuller narrative appears in Works and Days.
His account connects Pandora with Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus took fire from the gods. The story explains, within the poem’s mythic framework, why suffering and hardship exist among human beings.
Homer is often guessed because he is the best-known early Greek poet, but the surviving Pandora narrative is associated specifically with Hesiod. Later authors, artists, translators, and commentators expanded or altered the story, producing many familiar modern versions.