Hesiod first recorded the Pandora myth in detail.
The earliest surviving literary accounts appear in two works attributed to Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days. Works and Days gives the fuller narrative of Pandora’s creation, her arrival at Epimetheus’s home, and the opening of the container that releases evils into the world. Theogony contains a shorter related account connected with the punishment of humanity.
Homer is another foundational Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the detailed Pandora story commonly quoted today. Ovid later retells many Greek myths in Latin literature, yet he is not the earliest source for Pandora. Hesiod’s accounts remain central for reconstructing the myth’s archaic Greek form.