Hesiod wrote Works and Days, the poem with the fullest early Pandora story.
Works and Days is a didactic poem generally dated to around 700 BCE. It combines advice about farming, justice, work, household conduct, and the organization of the year with myths explaining why human life involves labor and suffering.
Its Pandora episode follows the story of Prometheus and Zeus. Zeus has Pandora created and sends her to Epimetheus, despite Prometheus’s warning. A jar associated with her then releases the troubles that affect humanity, while hope remains inside.
The poem is especially important because it gives details absent or compressed in Theogony. It is also the source most directly connected with the familiar sequence of Pandora opening the container. Later artists and writers expanded the imagery, but Hesiod’s poem remains the key early literary source.