Hesiod describes Pandora as the first woman in his account of the myth.
In Works and Days, Hesiod presents Pandora’s creation as the beginning of the female human race. Zeus orders the gods to fashion her after Prometheus gives fire to humanity. The poem frames Pandora as a divine punishment and connects her arrival with the introduction of hardship into human life.
Hesiod’s treatment is an important early example of a Greek creation story involving a first woman. It is also notably different from many modern retellings, which often focus almost entirely on curiosity and the opening of the container. The ancient poem instead emphasizes divine craftsmanship, marriage, labor, and the consequences of Zeus’s plan.
The claim belongs specifically to Hesiod’s literary account, not to every version of Greek mythology. Greek myths circulated in multiple forms, and later authors could alter genealogy, motivation, and symbolism. Hesiod remains the key surviving source for the version in which Pandora is presented as the first woman.