Hesiod first told the surviving story of Pandora's container in his poem Works and Days.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Works and Days combines farming advice, moral instruction, stories about justice, and myths explaining humanity's hardships. The Pandora episode appears while the poem discusses why life became difficult for mortals.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but Works and Days provides the better-known account of the container and its contents. The poem is not a modern narrative focused only on Pandora; the episode forms part of a larger argument about labor, justice, and the consequences of divine actions. Because the poems survive through manuscript transmission, exact dates and details of Hesiod's life remain uncertain, but his authorship of these works is the standard attribution.