Hesiod wrote the detailed Pandora story in Works and Days. The poem is one of the earliest surviving Greek literary works and combines mythology with advice about farming, justice, labor, and social conduct.
Hesiod’s account explains Pandora’s creation as a consequence of Prometheus deceiving Zeus and stealing fire for humanity. Zeus orders the gods to give Pandora various qualities, then sends her to the human world with the jar that releases suffering.
Pandora also appears briefly in Hesiod’s Theogony, but Works and Days supplies the fuller narrative familiar to later readers. This distinction matters because the two poems do not present exactly the same amount of detail about her role.
Hesiod is traditionally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. He is often studied alongside Homer, but the two poets are associated with different literary concerns: Homer with epic heroic poetry and Hesiod with genealogical myth and practical instruction.