Hesiod first told the Pandora myth in detail in his poem Works and Days.
Hesiod was an early Greek poet who probably lived around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Works and Days presents Pandora as part of an explanation for why human life contains suffering and hard work.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in Theogony, but the fuller story of her creation, marriage to Epimetheus, and the opening of the container appears in Works and Days. This distinction matters because people often treat later retellings as if they were the original myth.
The familiar English phrase “Pandora’s box” is itself a later alteration: Hesiod described a large storage jar, not a box. Later writers and translators helped turn the story into the standard expression used today for an action that unleashes many unforeseen problems.