Hesiod first records the detailed Pandora story in Works and Days. The archaic Greek poem, usually dated to around the seventh century BCE, explains Pandora’s creation and the release of evils from her jar.
Hesiod presents the myth within a wider account of human labor, hardship, justice, and the consequences of Prometheus’s theft of fire. Pandora’s arrival marks a change in the human condition: troubles spread among people, while Hope remains inside the vessel. The story is therefore part of a moral and cosmological explanation, not an isolated adventure.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, but Works and Days supplies the fuller narrative sequence. Homer is sometimes named because he is the best-known early Greek poet, yet the surviving Homeric epics do not provide this detailed account. Hesiod’s version became the main ancient source behind later retellings of Pandora’s box.