Hesiod first records the Pandora myth in surviving Greek literature. His poem Works and Days contains the fullest early account, presenting Pandora as part of Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus stole fire.
Hesiod also mentions Pandora in the Theogony, although that passage is shorter and does not provide the complete narrative found in Works and Days. The two poems are among the most important surviving works of archaic Greek poetry and are generally dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE.
Pandora is often loosely described as appearing in “Greek mythology” generally, but the precise literary source matters. Homer does not provide the standard Pandora story. Later Greek and Roman writers, artists, and translators expanded or reshaped the image, while Hesiod remains the key early source for the myth’s central elements.