Hesiod first recorded the surviving literary story of Pandora in ancient Greek poetry.
The myth appears in two works attributed to Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days. The fullest account of the woman, the jar, and the troubles released from it appears in Works and Days, a poem that combines farming advice, moral teaching, and stories about humanity’s condition.
Hesiod probably composed his poems during the eighth or early seventh century BCE. His works are among the earliest surviving texts of Greek literature, although the exact dates and details of his life remain uncertain. The story is therefore much older than its modern English title, “Pandora’s box.”
Homer is another foundational Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the standard Pandora narrative. Ovid later retold many Greek myths in Latin, yet he was not the earliest surviving literary source for Pandora’s story.