Hesiod wrote Works and Days, the main early source for the Pandora jar story. The archaic Greek poem combines moral instruction, farming advice, calendar material, and mythological narratives.
The Pandora episode appears in the poem as an explanation of why human life contains suffering and labor. It follows the story of Prometheus and the stolen fire, then describes the gods’ creation and adornment of Pandora. The poem’s narrative is one of the earliest surviving literary forms of the tradition.
Hesiod is often discussed alongside Homer as one of the foundational poets of ancient Greek literature. Unlike an epic centered on heroic warfare, Works and Days addresses practical life and justice. The related Theogony also discusses the divine order and Prometheus, but Works and Days is the text most directly associated with the jar episode.