Which Greek work says Pandora’s jar released evils after she opened it?

The Greek work that says Pandora’s jar released evils after she opened it is Works and Days. The poem is attributed to Hesiod and is one of the earliest surviving literary sources for the Pandora tradition.

Works and Days is a didactic poem combining advice about farming, justice, social conduct, and the human condition. The Pandora episode appears within its account of why suffering and hardship exist in the world. The story connects those conditions to Zeus’s response to Prometheus’s theft of fire.

The poem calls the container a pithos, a large jar or storage vessel. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” developed later, especially through translations and retellings. Hesiod’s wording is therefore important when distinguishing the ancient source from the modern expression.

The Iliad and Odyssey are also attributed to major Greek epic traditions, but neither is the principal source for Pandora’s jar story. The Aeneid is a Roman epic by Virgil and is later than Hesiod.