Hesiod first records Pandora’s creation as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity.
Hesiod, an ancient Greek poet generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, tells the story in two surviving works: Theogony and Works and Days. Theogony briefly describes the creation of woman, while Works and Days gives the fuller account of Pandora, the jar, and the release of human troubles.
The story follows the conflict involving Prometheus and Zeus. After Prometheus deceives Zeus and steals fire for humanity, Zeus orders the creation of Pandora as a countermeasure. Hesiod’s account is the earliest surviving literary evidence for this mythic sequence.
Homer is sometimes named in general discussions of Greek mythology, but the surviving Homeric poems do not provide the Pandora narrative preserved by Hesiod. Later writers and artists expanded the story in different ways.