Which Greek poet first records the story of Pandora?

Hesiod first records the story of Pandora in surviving Greek literature. He tells the myth in both the Theogony and Works and Days.

Hesiod was an early Greek poet generally dated to around the late eighth or early seventh century BCE. Works and Days presents Pandora in a story about Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire, while the Theogony gives a related account of her creation and role in human suffering.

The myth is therefore not originally a single standalone tale called “Pandora’s Box.” Its earliest surviving literary form is embedded in Hesiod’s poems, and later writers, artists, and translators reshaped details such as the container’s appearance and Pandora’s motivation.

Homer is often named because he is another famous early Greek poet, but the surviving Homeric epics do not provide the standard Pandora narrative. Hesiod is the key ancient literary source for the myth.