Hesiod describes Pandora in the poem Works and Days.
Works and Days is an ancient Greek didactic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod, probably composed in the seventh century BCE. Its Pandora episode appears while the poem explains why human life includes labor, hardship, and suffering. Zeus sends Pandora as part of his response to Prometheus’s deception and theft of fire.
Hesiod also refers to Pandora in the Theogony, but Works and Days gives the fuller narrative of her creation, marriage to Epimetheus, and the opening of the container. That is why the poem is the most important ancient literary source for the familiar story.
Homer is often guessed because he is the other best-known early Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the standard Pandora episode. Later authors, translators, artists, and modern writers adapt Hesiod’s material, sometimes changing the container from a jar into a box.