Hesiod wrote the Pandora account in the Theogony. Hesiod was an early Greek poet generally dated to the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, and the Theogony presents a genealogy and history of the gods.
The Theogony contains a shorter reference to Pandora than Hesiod’s later and fuller narrative in Works and Days. In the Theogony, Pandora’s creation is connected with Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus’s theft of fire. The poem describes her as a beautiful evil or destructive gift for human beings.
This distinction is important because the two Hesiodic poems are often blended in summaries. Works and Days supplies the detailed account of Pandora, the vessel, and the release of evils. The Theogony is an earlier or otherwise separate presentation that focuses more on divine genealogy and the consequences of Prometheus’s actions.
Hesiod is not Homer, although ancient tradition often grouped them together as foundational Greek poets. Homer is associated with the Iliad and Odyssey, while Hesiod is the principal ancient literary source for the Pandora story.