Hesiod wrote Works and Days, the ancient Greek poem containing the fullest surviving account of Pandora’s myth. The poem combines practical advice about farming and justice with stories explaining the difficult condition of human life.
In its Pandora passage, Zeus responds to Prometheus’s theft of fire by ordering the creation of a woman who will bring suffering to humanity. The gods equip her with different qualities, and she becomes connected with the opening of a vessel that releases evils into the world.
Works and Days is usually dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. It is one of the earliest surviving Greek literary works and is traditionally studied alongside Hesiod’s Theogony, which focuses more directly on the origins and genealogies of the gods.
Pandora’s story is sometimes attributed to Homer because both poets belong to early Greek literary tradition. However, the detailed narrative involving Pandora, Epimetheus, and the vessel is specifically associated with Hesiod.