Hesiod gives the fullest early literary account of Pandora in Works and Days.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His Works and Days is a didactic poem addressing agriculture, justice, work, and human hardship. Within that poem, Pandora’s creation explains how suffering and difficult labor came to affect humanity.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in Theogony, although that poem provides less narrative detail. Comparing the two works shows that the Pandora tradition was already part of a broader set of myths about Zeus, Prometheus, fire, and the relationship between gods and humans.
Later writers and artists expanded or altered the story. Modern versions often focus on the phrase “Pandora’s box,” while Hesiod’s account describes a sealed storage jar. Hesiod’s poems therefore matter not only as mythology sources but also as evidence for how early Greek poets explained the human condition.