Hesiod first records Pandora as the first woman in the surviving Greek literary tradition.
The main sources are Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, poems generally dated to the eighth or seventh century BCE. Works and Days gives the fuller narrative: Zeus orders Pandora’s creation after Prometheus gives fire to humans, and Pandora’s opening of a container releases suffering into the world.
Theogony contains a shorter account of the same broad episode and emphasizes the consequences of fire theft and the arrival of women. Hesiod’s treatment is therefore much earlier than the familiar Renaissance and modern versions of the story. Homer does not provide the standard Pandora narrative in the surviving epics.
The word “first” needs care: Hesiod is the earliest surviving literary source for the myth, not necessarily proof that no earlier oral versions existed. Greek myths circulated orally for generations before being written down, so the poems preserve stories that may have older roots.