Which Greek work by Hesiod gives the fullest surviving account of Pandora’s jar?

Hesiod’s Works and Days gives the fullest surviving account of Pandora’s jar. The poem combines practical advice about farming and justice with stories explaining the difficult condition of human life, including the Pandora episode.

The poem describes Zeus’s response to Prometheus, Pandora’s creation, her marriage to Epimetheus, and the opening of the vessel. It also includes the detail that hope remains inside after the harmful contents escape. These elements make Works and Days the primary literary source for the familiar narrative.

Hesiod’s Theogony also mentions Pandora and related events, but its focus is the genealogy and succession of the gods. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey do not provide the standard Pandora-and-jar story. That distinction matters because many Greek myths circulate across several authors and later retellings.

The poem is generally dated to the archaic period of Greek literature. Its Pandora passage is therefore much older than the modern phrase “Pandora’s box,” which developed through later translation and cultural tradition.