Hesiod first gave the surviving literary account of Pandora’s myth. The story appears in two poems traditionally attributed to him: Theogony and Works and Days, composed in archaic Greece around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE.
Theogony briefly connects Pandora’s creation with Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire. Works and Days gives a fuller narrative, including Pandora’s making by Hephaestus, the gifts of the gods, her marriage to Epimetheus, and the opening of the container.
Hesiod’s account is older than the familiar modern expression “Pandora’s box.” It also differs from many later versions in important details, especially the use of a pithos, or large jar. Homer’s epics do not provide the same complete Pandora story. Later Greek and Roman authors, artists, translators, and modern writers reshaped the myth into the form widely recognized today.