Hesiod wrote the earliest surviving accounts of Pandora in Works and Days and Theogony.
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet generally dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. His Works and Days contains the best-known account of Pandora’s creation and the opening of the container, while Theogony includes a shorter related passage.
These poems are among the earliest surviving Greek literary works, although their exact dates and the details of their composition remain subjects of scholarly discussion. Hesiod’s version is therefore the main ancient foundation for later stories about Pandora.
Homer is sometimes named by mistake because he is another famous early Greek poet, but the surviving Pandora narratives are associated with Hesiod. Later writers, artists, and modern media adapted the story, often changing the jar into a box and simplifying the moral framework.