Hesiod is the earliest known literary source for the Pandora myth.
The myth appears in two works attributed to Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days. Theogony gives a briefer account of Pandora’s creation, while Works and Days provides the better-known narrative involving the container, the released evils, and hope.
Hesiod lived in the archaic period of Greek literature, generally dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Exact dates for his life are uncertain, as they are for many early Greek poets. His poems are among the principal surviving sources for Greek ideas about the gods, the origins of the cosmos, work, justice, and human hardship.
Homer is sometimes named because both poets are foundational figures in Greek literature, but the surviving early Pandora narrative is associated with Hesiod. Later authors and translators reshaped the myth, especially the jar into the familiar “box.”