Hesiod is the ancient Greek poet who first used the name Pandora in surviving literary sources.
Hesiod was an early Greek poet generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His Works and Days gives the fullest surviving account of Pandora’s creation and the opening of the container. His Theogony also refers to the creation of the first woman, though the narrative emphasis differs.
Homer is often associated with early Greek epic, but the Pandora story is not narrated in the surviving Homeric poems. Sappho and Pindar belong to later literary periods and are not the source of the familiar myth.
The name Pandora means “all-gifted” or “giver of all,” connecting her creation with gifts bestowed by the gods. Later writers and artists reshaped the story, but Hesiod remains the central early literary authority for Pandora’s myth.